. 


'HE  FORTUNES  OF  RACHEL 


BY 

EDWARD    EVERETT    HALE 

OP  "  THE  MAN   WITHOUT  A  COUNTRY,"    "  HIS   LEVEL  BEST,"    "  HO 

IT,"    "IN   HIS  NAME,"    "TEN  TIMES  ONE   IS  TEN,"    "  CHIUSTMAS 

IN  A  PALACE,"  ETC.,  ETC. 


"  To  be  thrown  upon  one's  own  resources  is  to  be  cast  in  the  very  lap  of  Fortune  ; 
for  our  faculties  then  undergo  a  development  and  display  an  energy  of  which  they 
were  previously  unsusceptible."— B.  FRANKLIN. 


NEW  YORK 

FUNK    &    WAGNALLS,    PUBLISHERS 

10  AND  12  DEY  STREET 

1884 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1884,  by 

FUNK  &  WAGNALLS, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington,  D.  C. 

ALL  BIGHTS   RESERVED. 


Stack 
Annex 

5 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 
THE  BAIKAL  . . 


CHAPTER  II. 
LAND  Ho  !  . .  12 


CHAPTER  III. 
A  NEW  WORLD  ...  .20 


CHAPTER  IV. 
HITCIIIN  ..  .31 


CHAPTER  V. 
THE  DEMANDS  OF  SOCIETY  . .  .39 


CHAPTER  VI. 
GAYETY  AND  CHARITY...  .    51 


CHAPTER   VII. 
ANOTHER  NEW  WORLD  ...  .     Cl 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
Is  rr  POSSIBLE?.  .. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
FORGOTTEN  TREASURE  ......................................     90 

CHAPTER  X. 
LAKE  CONSTANCE  ...............  .........     98 


2034.56^ 


iv  CONTEXTS. 

CHAPTER   XL  TAGB 

PARTING 114 

CHAPTER  XII. 
THOMAS'S  CONCERT 120 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
THE  ANCILLARY  ESTABLISHMENT 125 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
HUDDLESTON'S 137 

CHAPTER  XV. 
CHICAGO  REVISITED 145 

-CHAPTER  XVI. 
THE  CRY  is  STILL  THEY  COME , 154 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
CLOUD  AND  STORM 166 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
CRISIS 176 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
BACK  AGAIN 187 

CHAPTER  XX. 
RACHEL'S  ANSWER 196 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
NEW  YEAR'S  DAY  INDEED 203 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
OLD  FRIENDS  AND  NEW  . .  . .  212 


• 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   BAIKAL. 

"  The  direful  spectacle  of  the  wreck, 
I  have  with  such  provision  in  mine  art 
So  safely  ordered,  that  there  is  no  soul — 
No,  not  so  much  perdition  as  a  hair 
Betid  to  any  creature  in  the  vessel." 

The  Tempest. 

"  HAVE  we  really  walked  an  hour  ?" 

Rachel  said  this  with  unaffected  surprise,  as  she  heard 
tlie  ship's  bell  tang-tang,  tang-tang.  It  was  four  bejls-  • 
six  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 

"I  am  sorry  to  say  it  is  really  an  hour,"  said  John 
"Wolff.  "  But  certainly  a  very  short  hour.  May  I  join 
you  when  you  take  your  walk  to-morrow  ?" 

But  Rachel  either  did  not  hear  or  did  not  care  to  an- 
swer. She  joined  her  father  and  mother,  who  had  been 
taking  a  walk  much  less  formidable,  and  then,  bidding 
Mr.  "Wolff  good-by,  went  down-stairs,  as  she  always  did, 
with  her  mother  to  see  that  she  had  her  cocoa  as  she 
liked  it,  and  was  put  comfortably  to  bed. 

Rachel  and  her  father  and  her  mother  belonged  to  that 
utterly  undefined  and  undefinable  race  on  a  passenger 
ship  called  second-class  passengers.  They  are  not  by 
any  means  steerage  passengers.  They  are  not  by  any 
means  first-class  passengers.  But  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  they  are  cabin  passengers.  Precisely  what 
are  their  rights  on  deck  he  would  be  a  very  wise  man 


6  THE    FORTUNES   OF   RACHEL. 

who  should  say.  This  is  certain — for  Kacliel  is  the  living 
evidence  of  it — that,  when  the  doctor  is  good-natured 
and  the  captain  chooses  to  have  it  so,  a  nice  girl  like 
Rachel  can  take  her  constitutional  on  deck  while  the 
first-class  passengers  are  in  the  saloon  at  dinner,  and  that 
nobody  will  think  or  say  that  the  world  is  coming  to  an 
end.  So  it  was  that  it  happened,  that  on  this  particular 
Thursday  afternoon  Rachel  and  John  "Wolff  had  been 
taking  their  constitutional  together.  John  Wolff  was  in 
no  sort  a  second-cabin  passenger.  He  had  an  inner 
stateroom,  that  is  true.  But  he  ranked,  in  the  hierarchy 
of  the  ship,  with  the  people  who  paid  the  most.  He 
had  a  knack,  however,  of  finding  out  the  people  he 
wanted  to  know,  whether  they  were  parted  from  him  by 
wainscots  or  by  etiquettes.  In  this  case  he  and  Rachel 
Finley's  father  had  met  forward  one  day,  and  Wolff  had 
asked  Mr.  Finley  for  a  light.  They  had  come  to  be  well 
acquainted,  first,  because  they  both  were  interested  ill 
some  Irish  children  who  were  playing  jack-straws  ;  sec- 
ond, because  they  both  had  dabbled  in  photography  • 
third,  because  they  were  both  stanch  Republicans; 
Wolff,  with  the  handy  experience  of  republican  govern- 
ment, which  comes  of  course  to  an  American  ;  Finley, 
because  he  had  been  the  principal  manager  in  a  radical 
club  in  his  home  in  the  North  of  England.  Thus  was  it 
that  one  afternoon  Finley  had  introduced  JohnWolff  to 
his  wife,  and  that  the  young  man  had,  the  next  day,  taken 
the  hour's  walk  with  Rachel  which  she  would  else  have 
taken  with  her  father.  Rachel  was  no  longer  a  little  gii  1. 
She  was  fully  fourteen,  and  was  tall  for  her  age. 

Yes,  Mrs.  Finley  was,  on  the  whole,  going  through 
the  misery  of  the  voyage  better  than  any  one  had  hoped 
— better  than  she  had  hoped.     Wretchedness  it  was  all ' 
—  that  was  of  course.     Still,  she  could  drag  herself  up- 


THE    BAIKAL.  7 

stairs  in  the  latter  part  of  the  day.  She  had  to-day  even 
made  the  wretched  attempt  at  a  little  walk.  She  was 
quite  proud,  and  Rachel  was  quite  proud,  when,  after 
the  cocoa  and  the  toast,  the  girl  had  undressed  her 
mother,  had  put  her  to  bed  and  kissed  her,  arid  tucked 
her  up  comfortably.  She  promised  she  would  sleep, 
and  sleep  in  fact  she  did. 

And  so  did  Rachel  sleep,  more  comfortably  than  she 
had  yet  done  any  night,  because  her  mother  was  so 
quiet.  She  waked  once  or  twice,  but  it  was  $nly  to  count 
the  engine  throbs  two  or  three  times,  and  she  was  dream- 
ing, really  dreaming,  of  the  brook  at  Sandford,  when — 

"  CRASH  !" 

And  there  was  no  dreaming  more.  The  whole  berth 
trembled  under  her.  A  sort  of  heavy  pulse  seemed  to 
beat  in  everything,  below  and  above.  Then  the  engine- 
throb  again,  and  cries  above.  Rachel  waited  on  her 
elbow.  She  heard  her  father  run  along  the  little  passage 
to  the  bigger  passage.  She  could  not  make  out  one 
word  from  the  talk,  not  loud  but  earnest,  which  fol- 
lowed. Then  he  came  back. 

"  Dress  yourself  as  quick  as  you  can,  Rachel  ;  but  do 
not  hurry.  We  have  struck  something,  or  something  has 
struck  us.  You  may  as  well  be  on  deck,  and  I  will 
bring  your  mother  to  you." 

"  Let  me  help  my  mother  dress." 

"  No,  dear  child,  no.  She  is  used  to  me  as  well  as 
you.  And,  as  1  tell  you,  there  is  plenty  of  time.  Per- 
haps there  is  no  need  for  alarm  at  all." 

So  such  things  always  begin.  Nor  did  Mr.  Finley  lie 
to  her  or  to  himself  when  he  said  all  this.  But,  all  the 
same,  when  Rachel's  mother  joined  her  on  the  upper 
deck  after  ten  minutes,  she  knew,  Rachel  knew,  and 
they  all  knew,  that  the  ship  was  going  down.  The  little 


8  THE    F011TUXES    OF    KACIIEL.  - 

French  fishing  steamer  which  had  run  into  them  was 
burning  blue  lights  some  two  hundred  yards  away,  and 
even  Rachel's  inexperienced  eye  could  see  that  her  head 
was  sunk  much  below  her  stern.  In  truth,  her  forward 
compartment  was  already  fall.  On  board  the  Baikal 
they  knew  by  this  time  that  their  own  condition  was 
scarcely  better.  But  everything  was  orderly.  Groups 
were  forming,  as  the  officers  of  different  boats  were  tell- 
ing off  their  respective  parties,  and  giving,  not  in  very 
loud  tones,  their  instructions.  Some  of  the  people  had 
not  imagination  enough  to  be  excited.  Some  had  too 
much  to  be  afraid.  There  was  strangely  little  sobbing, 
questioning,  or  crying.  It  almost  seemed  as  if  people 
were  shipwrecked  every  day. 

"  Thank  God,  we  are  together  !'•'  said  Rachel's  mother 
to  her  as  the  girl  sat  on  the  deck  and  held  her  hand. 
"  How  glad  1  am  that  your  father  did  not  come  without 
us  !" 

"  Glad  indeed,  dear  mother  ;  nothing  seems  wrong  now 
that  I  have  you  and  him."  And  at  the  moment  her 
father  joined  them.  He  had  been  working  with  the 
ship's  surgeon  among  those  very  Irish  emigrants  with 
whom  his  kindness  had  made  him  a  sort  of  master,  and 
who  were  fully  willing  to  accept  his  authority. 

"  It  is  certain  we  must  all  take  the  boats,"  he  said  in 
a  low  tone  to  the  others.  "  The  fisherman  is  worse  hurt 
than  we  are.  He  cannot  help  us,  and  we  cannot  help 
him.  This  vessel  is  steadily  settling.  In  ten  minutes 
there  will  be  no  fires  in  the  engine-rooms,  and  after  that 
it  is  all  a  question  of  time.  But  the  mate  yonder  says  it 
is  well  for  us  that  there  is  so  little  sea,  only  they  all 
wish  it  were  lighter — I  mean  that  there  were  no  fog." 

And  then  Rachel  observed  for  the  first  time  that  once 
a  minute  a  cannon  was  fired  from  the  deck  forward. 


THE   BAIKAL.  9 

She  had  heard  the  sound  before,  but  it  had '  not  oc- 
curred to  her  that  this  was  "the  minute-gun  at  sea." 
Heavens  !  How  often  she  had  laughed  behind  her  Aunt 
Ann's  back  when  the  old  lady  had  sung  "  The  minute- 
gun  at  sea,"  and  had  pounded  fourteen  white  ivory 
bass  keys  to  give  vigor  to  the  explosion.  And  these 
were  real  minute-guns  ! 

Steady  discipline  told.  And  it  was  well  for  them  now 
that  they  had  so  few  passengers.  The  Baikal  was  not  a 
regular  packet.  She  was  on  an  extra  trip,  and  in  each 
grade  of  passage  the  passengers  were  only  those  who, 
by  one  accident  or  another,  were  left  over  from  fuller 
vessels.  The  officers  therefore  did  not  lie,  as  during 
these  hours  of  slow  sinking  they  steadily  told  all  the 
landsmen  that  there  was  room  enough  in  the  boats  for 
each  and  all.  Indeed,  it  was  well  for  the  morale  of 
everybody  that  they  were  told  off,  as  they  were,  into 
these  little  parties.  They  began  to  know  each  other  and 
to  know  their  chiefs.  Rachel,  in  her  ready,  healthy 
way,  soon  made  friends  with  the  two  red-faced  children 
of  the  Irishwoman  who,  at  first  howling  with  horror,  was 
now  well  content  with  the  prospect  before  her.  The 
stewards  who  belonged  to  their  boat  were  fairly  joking 
as  they  contended  with  other  stewards,  which  should  have 
a  certain  box  of  Boston  crackers,  and  which  a  certain  tub  of 
butter  for  boat  stores.  The  women  sat  and  saw  such 
provisions  for  housekeeping  going  on  with  new  confi- 
dence in  this  boat  voyaging.  Surely,  things  could  not  be 
very  hard  for  them  if  the  men  could  laugh  or  even  quar- 
rel about  bread  and  butter.  But  the  women  could  see 
that  the  Baikal's  deck  was  nearer  to  the  water-line.  On 
the  main  deck  it  was  clear  to  anybody  that  her  hours, 
perhaps  her  minutes,  were  all  counted.  And  so  at  last 
the  order  came  cheerily  and  civilly,  as  if  it  were  an 


10  THE   FORTUNES   OF   EACHKL. 

every-day  affair.  One  of  tlie  warrant  officers  ordered 
the  stewards  out  from  the  quarter-boat,  which  still  hung 
upon  the  davits,  and  said,  "  Now,  ladies,  we  are  ready 
for  you.  John,  give  Mrs.  Finley  your  hand.  Watch 
your  chance,  Biddy.  I'll  hand  you  the  babies,' '  and,  one 
by  one,  his  six  women  were  placed  in  their  seats  in  the 
boat.  A  seaman  before  and  one  aft  tended  the  ropes 
which  were  to  lower  her  to  the  water.  The  other  men 
would  not  enter  her  till  she  was  afloat. 

Eachel  was  the  last  to  enter.  Confident  in  her  own 
steady  step,  she  carried  with  her  her  mother's  well- 
packed  bag,  almost  as  heavily  laden  as  the  good  Eliza- 
beth's bag  in  the  "  Swiss  Family  Robinson."  She 
reached  the  boat,  stepped  on  one  gunwale  as  she  gave 
the  bag  into  her  mother's  arms,  and  at  that  instant  the 
Baikal  gave  the  first  lurch  she  had  given  that  morning. 
The  girl  tripped,  started,  and  fell  a  dozen  feet  into  the  sea. 

She  rose  like  a  cork.  All  those  visits  to  Aunt  Ann  at 
Bishop's  Wearmouth  were  not  in  vain.  In  a  minute  she 
was  fresh  on  the  water  surface  and  called  out  ''All  right  !" 
In  a  minute  more  the  first  officer,  who  in  his  own  boat 
was  lying  just  outside,  had  shot  in  to  the  Baikal  ;  a 
young  man  forward  had  reached  over  and  caught  Rachel 
at  the  elbow.  A  minute  more  and  he  dragged  her  in. 

"  She  is  all  right.  She  is  all  right.  "We  will  keep 
her  till  you  come  down." 

Then  they  pulled  back  to  their  station  of  observation. 
And  now  the  embarkation  went  forward  rapidly.  At 
each  side  of  the  great  ship  one  regular  gangway  enabled 
a  steady  procession  to  move  down  and  go  on  board  with 
a  certain  system.  Two  of  the  larger  boats  took  in  their 
cargoes  thus.  The  others  were  laden  above,  so  far  as 
their  women  folk  went,  and  were  lowered  when  they 
were  ready.  Poor  Rachel  was  the  only  passenger  who 


THE    BAIKAL.  11 

took  the  flying  passage,  unless  the  butcher's  dog,  who 
was  ignominiously  kicked  overboard,  is  to  be  counted  as 
a  passenger. 

Rachel  sat,  not  shivering,  watching  the  whole  scene. 
She  was  wrapped  in  a  heavy  ulster  coat  which  Mr. 
Wolff  had  in  the  boat  with  him.  It  was  Mr.  Wolff  who 
had  leaned  over  the  gunwale  and  had  hauled  her  in. 

The  poor  Baikal !  She  was  lower  and  lower.  That 
young  Cambridge  lad  wrho  had  been  steadily  firing  his 
minute-guns  was  called  in,  and  that  voice  was  silent. 
He  ran  down  the  few  steps  yet  above  the  water,  and 
sprang  into  the  doctor's  boat.  Poor  Captain  Ryland 
stood  alone  at  the  open  gangway. 

"Mr.  Winter." 

"  Ay,  ay,  sir  !"  and  the  boat  shot  up  to  the  step. 

The  poor  captain  stepped  in.  "  There  is  not  a  cock- 
roach on  board,  unless  he  wants  to  stay." 

"  They  have  all  had  their  chance.     Give  way,  men." 

"  Give  wayT"  repeated  the  coxswain. 

And  the  boat  sprung  off  from  the  unfortunate  Baikal. 

The  little  fleet  lay  for  half  an  hour — or  was  it  so  long, 
—ail  on  board  watching  the  gray  form  which  still  loomed 
through  the  darkness  of  the  fog,  when,  with  a  sudden 
lurch,  the  smoke-stacks  pitched  forward,  and  in  five  sec- 
onds the  whole  was  gone. 

"Mr.  Winter,"  cried  the  captain,  "you  understand 
your  orders.  Keep  me  in  sight.  ]STo  one  is  to  make  any 
haste.  The  course  is  west-south-west  one  half  west." 

"  Ay,  ay,  sir  !" 

And  Mr.  Winter  passed  the  direction  to  the  boats  next 
to  him.  The  little  flotilla  was  to  work  slowly  along  in 
the  expectation,  well-nigh  a  certainty,  that  before  night 
some  passing  vessel  on  the  great  highway  between  two 
continents  would  see  them  and  save  them. 


CHAPTEK  II. 

LAND    HO  ! 
"  Not  alms,  but  a  friend." 

Bur  the  fog  was  too  heavy. 

Night  fell,  and  there  was  no  rescue.  And  all  day 
long  nobody  had  said  a  word  about  transferring  poor 
Rachel  to  the  boat  in  which  were  her  father  and  her 
mother. 

Alas  !  they  had  other  things  to  think  of  than  one  which 
would  break  the  line  of  voyage  of  the  little  squadron. 

Night  fell.  Till  night  they  had  succeeded  in  keeping 
together.  And  after  nightfall  an  occasional  u  Halloo  !" 
would  bring  an  answer  from  one  boat  or  another.  To 
Rachel  the  whole  day  had  been  putting  her  strangely  at 
ease.  Had  she  lived  in  this  boat  for  months  ?  The  men 
petted  her — their  only  woman  passenger — and  with  all 
their  rough  attentions  made  her  at  ease.  No  sail  had 
been  set,  and  so  the  little  bit  of  canvas  which  the  boat 
had,  had  been  passed  aft  and  folded  for  a  sort  of  long 
cushion,  which  she  might  stretch  herself  upon  quite  at 
length.  Mr.  Wolff's  ulster  and  Mr.  Atwood's  heavy 
pea-jacket  were  both  hers.  Her  own  ill-fated  wraps  had 
been  held  up  on  the  boat-hooks  and  oars  to  dry,  as  far  as 
anything  would  dry  in  that  dismal  fog.  She  had  wrung 
out  her  stockings  and  had  rubbed  her  feet  warm.  There 
had  been  a  thousand  curious  things  to  watch  and  to  ask 
about,  and  so,  at  night,  boat  life  seemed  to  Rachel  as  a 


LAND   HO  !  13 

tiling  almost  as  much  of  course  as  cabin  life  had  seemed 
the  night  before. 

"  Only  we  did  not  get  our  walk  before  sunset,  Mr. 
Wolff,"  she  said. 

She  fell  asleep.  And  she  slept  soundly.  Indeed,  it 
was  after  one  o'clock  when  the  coxswain,  who  at  the 
helm  was  next  her,  touched  her  and  woke  her.  The 
girl  started.  "  Please,  miss,  listen,  and  tell  what  you 
hear." 

"  Hear — nothing  but  the  waves.  Oh,  yes,  there  it  is. 
Why,  it  is  a  horn — the  long  wail  of  a  horn." 

"  Yes,  miss,  that  is  a  fog-horn.  Now,  where  away  is 
it,  miss?" 

The  girl  pointed  without  hesitation.      "  It  is  there." 

"  Thank  you,  miss.  I  thought  so,  miss.  But  two  is 
surer  than  one,  miss."  Then  to  his  sleeping  crew  : 

"  Halloo  !  Attention  !  Let  fall  !  One,  two,  give 
way  !" 

And  the  word  passed  immediately  that  a  fog-horn  had 
been  heard.  Then  there  was  great  search  for  a  bugle. 
But  it  was  not  to  be  found.  Somebody  had  had  it,  but 
nobody  had  seen  it.  After  fifty  strokes  the  coxswain 
stopped  his  men,  hushed  them  all,  listened  again,  and 
again  all  hands  agreed  as  to  the  direction  of  that  most 
mournful  yet  most  hopeful  wail. 

"  Now,  all  together,  lads,  cheer  !"  And  one  long 
"  Halloo-o-o  !"  rang  out  in  unison. 

"  Please,  miss,  will  you  hail  him  ?  They  do  say  a 
woman's  voice  goes  farther." 

And  Rachel,  with  her  very  best,  as  you  need  not 
doubt,  rang  out  her  woman's  "  Halloo  !"  good  ten 
notes  higher  than  the  coxswain's. 

Fifteen  minutes  more,  and  there  was  no  doubt. 

"  Come  round  under  our  lee.     A  woman,  you  say  ? 


14  THE   FOETUSES   OF   RACHEL. 

Boys,  make  fast  jour  ladder  to  the  rail.  Send  her  up 
first.  Now  you're  all  safe,  marm.  Any  other  women 
folks  ?  Where  be  ye  all  from  ?  Any  more  on  you  ?" 

It  was  the  Gloucester  fishing-boat  William  Wallace 
which  had  picked  up  the  lost  voyagers. 

"  Guess  it  was  you  we  heerd,"  said  the  eager  skipper 
vvheii  the  boat  was  secured.  "  They  say  a  woman's  voice 
carries  farthest  when  it's  kind  o'  foggy." 

And  then  began  counsel  and  effort,  back  and  forth, 
firing  of  muskets,  blowing  the  horn,  anything  which 
might  call  the  other  boats  from  their  hiding-places.  But 
in  two  days'  time  the  skipper  found  no  other  boat. 
There  was  clearly  no  good  in  staying  where  they  were, 
and,  as  his  fare  was  made,  he  bore  away  for  Boston  Bay. 

"  Never  you  fear  for  the  others,"  said  he  a  thousand 
times  to  Eachel.  "  The  Calabria  has  them  all.  I 
Bpoke  her  jest  as  the  sun  went  down,  or  jest  when  he 
would  ha'  gone  down  had  there  been  any  sun.  Never 
you  fear." 

And  after  nine  days  the  William  Wallace  came  to  an 
anchor  half  a  mile  off  Long  Wharf  in  Boston. 

"  May  as  well  run  into  Boston,  seein'  the  wind's  at 
the  east.  Jest  as  well  for  these  here  passengers.  They 
can  see  their  folks  easier,  and  I  can  go  over  and  have  a 
talk  with  Cap'n  Babson."  So  they  did  not  run  into 
Gloucester  Bay  but  into  Boston  Harbor. 

"  Now  we  shall  hear  where  your  folks  be,  Miss 
Rachel,"  said  the  skipper  cheerfully,  as  at  nine  in  the 
morning  he  bade  Eachel  good-by  and  rowed  on  shore. 

But  he  did  not  find  "where  her  folks  was."  He 
reported  to  the  Advertiser  ship-news  officer,  as  his  wont 
was,  to  be  told  at  once  that  he  had  brought  the  first  news 
of  the  Baikal's  loss.  All  the  good  fellow's  hopes  were 
blasted  in  the  moment.  That  he  should  telegraph  to 


LAND   HO  !  15 

New  York  or  cable  to  Liverpool  for  her  father,  that  he 
should  go  back  to  her  and  tell  her  all  was  well,  he  had 
been  quite  sure.  Now  he  must  make  some  better  pro- 
vision for  her  than  the  stateroom  on  the  William 
Wallace,  which  by  courtesy  was  called  the  captain's 
cabin.  And  he  must  make  this  provision  "  right  away." 

"What  in  the  world  do  they  do  with  gals  that  is 
picked  up  afloat  at  sea  ?" 

The  friendly  reporter  did  not  know.  But  he  did 
know  the  way  to  what  is  called  "  the  Chardon  Street 
Bureau,"  and  thither  the  captain  went,  only  stopping  to 
telegraph  to  his  partner  at  Gloucester  of  his  return,  of 
the  fare  taken,  and  of  the  seamen  and  others  rescued. 

At  the  Bureau  he  passed  through  a  hall  where  were 
loitering  half  a  dozen  sad-looking  Irishmen,  and  one  or  two 
older  men  in  tattered  clothes,  bent  a  good  deal  in  the  back 
and  legs.  More  to  the  inquiry  in  his  eyes  than  to  any 
word  of  his,  they  answered  by  pointing  him  in  to  a  busy 
office  at  the  left,  where  he  told  his  story. 

The  quiet  gentleman  on  duty  replied,  "  Eight  seamen, 
you  say,  four  emigrants,  and  a  girl.  Very  well ;  if  any- 
body needs  anything,  let  them  come  here  first.  They 
have  no  clothes  ?" 

"  Oh,  most  of  the  men  have  their  kits.  I  do  not 
think  the  sailors  will  trouble  you.  It's  the  gal.  She's 
nothin'  but  the  clothes  she  is  in — and  we  don't  know 
where  her  father  and  mother  be.  They's  in  another 
boat,  you  see,  and  like  as  not  they's  gone  back  to  Liver- 
pool. She's  a  nice  gal,  say  fourteen  years  old." 

"  And  where  is  she  ?"  said  the  patient  officer. 

"  I  tell  you  she's  in  my  cabin  now.  I  would  not  land 
her  till  I  knew  where  to  bring  her." 

"  Oh,  bring  her  here,  of  course,  if  she  has  no  friends. 
We  shall  see  to  her."  And  he  rang  his  bell.  "Ask 


16  THE   FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

Miss  Child  to  have  the  goodness  to  come  to  me.— Miss 
Child,  I  think  this  is  your  case  rather  than  ours.  The 
captain  here  has  picked  up  an  English  girl  at  sea.  Sho 
is  on  board  his  boat.  Captain,  when  will  you  have  her 
here?" 

"  Wall,  we'll  both  be  here  at  half-past  eleven,  or  say 
we'll  call  it  eleven.  I'll  go  aboard  now  and  bring  her 
right  away." 

"  You  say  picked  up  at  sea  !  Has  she  any  clothes  ?" 
said  the  sympathizing  lady. 

"  She  has  what  she  swum  in,  that's  all,"  replied  the 
captaiu,  on  a  broad  grin. 

"  And  how  big  is  she  ?"  persisted  Miss  Child. 

"Big?  "Wall,  she's  a  good-sized  gal  of  fourteen,  as 
tall  as  that  Irish  gal  in  the  entry  ;  a  nice  gal,  with  nice 
ways,  and  the  things  she  has  is  good,"  added  the  captain 
eagerly,  by  way  of  recommendation  of  his  favorite. 

"  1  will  send  up  to  the  Provident,  and  her  clothes  shall 
be  ready  before  you  come,"  said  Miss  Child.  "  Here  is 
my  card.  Bring  her  direct  to  me,  at  Number  93." 

From  office  to  office  through  the  Charity  Bureau  ran 
the  romantic  news  that  a  girl  was  to  be  brought  in  at 
eleven  o'clock  who  had  been  picked  up  swimming  in  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  nine  days  from  land.  Each  office  was  on 
its  mettle  to  supply  what  the  proprieties  and  fashions  of 
Boston  might  find  necessary  for  such  a  waif.  And  so, 
when  poor  dazed  and  astonished  Rachel  appeared  with 
the  captain  at  Number  93,  there  was  provision  enough 
there  in  every  detail  of  equipage  for  twenty  mermaids, 
had  they  been  so  fortunate  as  to  take  passage  on  the 
William  Wallace.  What  was  more  to  the  point,  per- 
haps, certainly  what  was  most  to  poor  Rachel's  needs 
here,  were  two  sympathetic,  eager  women,  only  anxious 
to  strip  her  and  to  clothe  her  anew  from  head  to  toe,  and 


LAND   HO !  1? 

a  good  deal  disappointed  indeed  to  see  how  nicely  the 
girl  bad  arrayed  herself,  and  that,  after  nine  days,  her 
clothes  were  dry.  For  a  box  of  new  boots  was  lying 
open,  from  which  her  feet  were  to  be  fitted;  piles  of  un- 
derclothing were  to  be  tried  ;  stockings,  frocks,  sacks, 
and  even  bonnets  had  been  brought  into  the  little  room 
which  had  been  seized  for  a  dressing-room.  There  was 
no  nonsense  in  this  exuberant  sympathy,  but  there  was 
no  lack  of  the  sympathy  ;  and  to  the  admiring  captain 
Rachel  appeared  in  half  an  hour  with  no  sign  left  upon 
her  of  her  sudden  plunge. 

"  You  need  give  yourself  no  anxiety,  captain,"  Miss 
Child  was  saying.  "If  it  is  necessary,  I  shall  take  her 
home  with  me  to-night.  But  it  is  not  necessary.  You 
seem  to  forget  that  this  is  what  we  are  for." 

"  For  ?  How  often  do  you  have  gals  fished  out  of  the 
sea  on  the  Banks  ?" 

Miss  Child  laughed.  "  Not  often.  But  into  these 
offices  every  year  come  ten  thousand  people  not  as  well 
off  as  our  little  friend  is,  and  just  as  ignorant  what  is  to 
happen  to  them.  We  are  here  because  they  come,  and 
so,  as  I  say,  we  are  not  unused  to  taking  care  of  them. 
But,  my  dear  child,"  she  said  to  Rachel,  "  I  do  not 
often  see  as  nice  a  girl  as  you."  And  then  the  genuine 
New  England  shyness  settling  down  on  her  after  so  long 
an  address,  she  said,  with  the  first  instinct  of  true  hospi- 
tality in  all  lands,  "  Are  you  not  hungry  ?  Miss  Smith, 
I  cannot  well  leave.  Will  you  take  her  round  to  Mrs. 
McGill  and  ask  her  to  give  you  both  some  chowder? 
Captain,  go  in  with  them.  We  cannot  quite  match  your 
Cape  Ann  chowder,  but  we  will  keep  you  from  starv- 
ing." 

And  Miss  Smith  led  the  way  laughing  to  the  Tempo- 
rary Home  next  door.  Again  the  miraculous  story  was 


18  THE   FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

told  that  this  girl  had  been  picked  np  swimming  in  the 
middle  of  the  Atlantic.  Matters  were  well  advanced, 
before  the  captain  discovered  this  misapprehension  and 
gave  a  more  correct  statement.  But,  as  usually  happens, 
the  marvellous  story  held  its  place  and  the  more  stupid 
fact  was  forgotten.  Mrs.  McGill  eagerly  produced  soup- 
plates  and  spoons  and  crackers  and  salt,  and  at  a  table 
covered  with  glazed  cloth  they  sat  at  their  lunch.  It 
was  much  such  a  meal  as  Rachel  had  joined  in  at  noon 
every  day  on  board  the  William  Wallace.  It  was  neatly 
served.  It  was  something  the  girl  had  never  eaten  in 
Yorkshire.  But,  all  the  same,  she  liked  it.  She  was 
young.  She  was  hungry.  The  chowder  was  hot  and 
savory  and  nourishing.  What  if  the  spoons  were  pewter 
and  the  stout  earthen  plates  knocked  and  cracked  at  the 
edges  ? 

When  they  came  back,  Miss  Child  again  assured  the 
good  skipper  that  he  need  not  wait.  "  We  will  see  she 
is  well  off,  and  Mr.  Canfield  says  she  shall  have  the  very 
first  news  of  her  father.  Leave  us  your  address  and  you 
shall  hear  too."  So  the  skipper  left  the  address  of  his 
Gloucester  firm.  "  But,  my  dear  Rachel,  if  I'd  had  any 
home  now,  you  know  you  would  have  gone  back  with 
me."  And  his  eyes  filled  to  overflowing  as  he  made  this 
first  reference  to  the  old  home  that  was  not.  And  poor 
Rachel — little  wonder— jumped  into  his  arms  and  kissed 
him. 

•  When  he  was  gone  the  poor  child  felt,  as  well  she 
might,  that  she  was  indeed  alone. 

The  good  f  riend  who  had  seen  to  her  outfit  did  not 
misapprehend  the  position.  She  said  a  word  or  two  of 
good  cheer  to  poor  Rachel,  but  rightly  guessed  that  the 
true  comfort  was  to  be  found  in  occupying  her  with  new 
sights  and  sounds. 


LAND   HO  !  19 

"  And  so,  my  dear  girl,  Kachel — is  that  your  name  ? — 
while  we  are  waiting  for  news  from  New  York,  Miss 
Smith  here  shall  take  you  to  walk,  to  see  the  wonders  of 
this  wild  America.  See  if  you  cannot  bring  me  home  a 
little  lion  cub  from  the  Common. 

"  Miss  Smith,  run  up-stairs  and  put  on  your  things. 
Tell  them  in  the  office  that  I  say  you  are  needed  on  im- 
portant duty  in  the  Fifth  Ward.  Come  down  here  and 
take  our  little  Rachel  up  to  the  Common.  Show  her  the 
sights,  and  be  back  here  at  two." 

And  then,  in  a  half  aside,  half  confidential  to  Miss 
Smith,  she  said,  "  I'll  have  some  one  here  to  meet  her 
then." 


CHAPTEK  III. 

A   NEW   WORLD. 

"  The  broad-armed  trees  above  it  growing, 
The  clear  breeze  through  the  foliage  blowing." 

So  Kacliel  and  Miss  Smith  worked  their  way  through 
Cambridge  Street,  which  is  the  crowded  central  ganglion 
of  the  circulation  of  Boston,  where  men,  women,  horses, 
cars,  carts,  and  carriages  from  the  north  meet  and  pass 
boys,  girls,  dogs,  cats,  express  wagons,  and  loads  of 
moving  furniture  from  the  south.  They  passed  Scollay 
Square,  and  Miss  Smith  pointed  out  the  statue  of  Win- 
throp  to  Eachel,  and  explained  to  her  how  the  first 
people  came  over.  They  worked  their  way  along  to  the 
Common,  and  the  poor  sea-tossed  girl  was  regaled  with 
the  sight  of  green  grass  and  overhanging  trees.  Miss 
Smith  led  her  to  the  Frog  Pond,  in  the  hope  that  the 
fountain  might  be  playing,  never  so  shyly.  But  alas  ! 
water  was  scarce  that  summer,  and  there  was  no  such 
display. 

But  there  was  what  was  better — an  army  of  boys,  not 
to  say  girls,  sailing  their  tiny  boats  upon  the  tiny 
"lake."  And  Eachel  exulted  in  the  steadiness  of  the 
earth  beneath  her,  in  the  fragrance  of  new-cut  grass. 
She  sympathized  with  the  feeling  of  an  expert  in  every 
shipwreck,  and  found  herself  giving  counsel  how  a  sail 
made  from  a  writing-book  should  be  fastened  that  it 
might  best  woo  the  south  wind. 


A  XEW    WOKLD.  21 

Of  a  sudden  a  surprised  voice  : 

"  Why,  my  dear  Miss  Rachel,  is  this  you  ?" 

The  girl  turned  in  wonder  that  any  one  should  know 
her,  and  in  hope,  in  all  this  unknown  continent.  The 
speaker  was  Mr.  Wolff,  whom  she  had  not  seen  since 
they  parted  at  breakfast  on  the  fishing-boat.  She  had 
had  no  chance  even  to  bid  him  good-by. 

"  Why,  Mr.  Wolff  !"  she  said.  "  I  am  so  glad  to  see 
you.  It  seemed  so  rude  that  I  left  you  without  even 
saying  good-by,  when  I  wanted  to  thank  you  so  much, 
and  the  captain,  and  all  for  your  kindness  to  me." 

"  The  captain  and  all  were  sure  of  that,"  replied  he, 
pleasantly.  And  he  took  a  seat  by  her,  and  made  her 
sit  down  again.  He  bowed  to  Miss  Smith  and  went  on  : 

"  All  of  us  went  ashore,  just  to  report  ourselves,  and 
thought  we  should  find  you  on  board  when  we  came 
back  with  news.  But  when  we  came  back  our  little 
bird  had  fled.1" 

"  And  you  know  there  is  no  news,"  said  the  girl,  with 
her  eyes  filling. 

"  No,  none  yet.  How  should  there  be  ?  There  can 
be  no  news  till  they  get  to  Liverpool,  and  that  cannot 
be  till  to-morrow  or  next  day." 

Thus  spoke  Mr.  Wolff,  with  that  steady  desire  to  com- 
fort a  woman  which  holds  so  important  a  place  in  the 
conversation  of  kind-hearted  men.  He  forgot,  or  pre- 
tended to  forget,  what  Rachel  did  not  for  a  moment 
forget,  that  only  a  moment  before  he  had  said  they  went 
ashore  for  news  and  expected  it. 

"And  now,  Miss  Rachel,  where  are  you,  and  what 
can  we  do  for  you  ?  The  captain  goes  to  New  York  to- 
day. And  I  know  he  will  take  you  with  him  if  you 
will.  For  me,  I  am  going  to  Chicago  to-night,  on  my 
way  to  my  friends,  who  live  three  hundred  miles  beyond. 


22  THE   FORTUNES  OF   KACHEL. 

1  will  gladly  take  you  to  my  mother,  who  will  take,  oh, 
beautiful  care  of  you  till  we  hear  from  your  father." 

But  Rachel  was  quick  enough  to  discern,  even  in  the 
tone  of  his  voice,  his  own  feeling  that  this  would  not  be 
a  wise  thing  to  do.  Still  she  was  grateful  for  the  offer. 
And  Mr.  Wolff  was  the  only  connecting  link  which  she 
had  with  her  father.  She  answered,  slowly  : 

11  Three  hundred  miles  !  That  would  be  a  great  way 
to  go  while  we  are  waiting.  How  far  is  the  other 
place  ?  How  far  is  Chicago  ?" 

"  Oh,  -my  dear  girl,"  Miss  Smith  broke  in  here, 
"  that  is  all  out  of  the  question.  Chicago  is  a  day  and 
a  half  away  ;  it  is  more  than  a  thousand  miles.  The 
gentleman  is  very  kind.  But  you  will  stay  with  us  till 
we  hear  from  your  father." 

Mr.  Wolff  bowed.  Who  "us"  might  be  he  did  not 
know.  But  he  could  see  that  Miss  Smith  understood 
herself,  and  was  a  lady. 

"  Can  I  be  of  any  service  ?  Can  1  write  or  telegraph  ? 
Or  can  I  not  lend  Miss  Rachel  some  money  ?  I  have 
already  drawn  on  my  father  by  telegraph,  and  I  am  rich 
indeed." 

But  Miss  Smith  was  decided.  Rachel  needed  neither 
travelling  companions  nor  loans  of  money,  certainly  not 
from  gentlemen  whose  names  even  Miss  Smith  did  not 
know.  She  thanked  Mr.  Wolff  not  austerely,  said 
"we"  should  be  quite  able  to  care  for  Miss  Finley,  and 
changed  the  subject  squarely  from  the  future  to  the  past 
by  asking  some  question  about  the  shipwreck. 

Mr.  Wolff  yielded  to  her  evident  will.  But  he  yielded 
in  wonder.  He  knew  perfectly  that,  four  hours  before, 
Rachel  Finley  was  an  utter  stranger  on  the  edge  of  an 
unknown  continent.  Columbus  was  not  less  known  to 
the  Inca  of  Peru  on  the  morning  of  the  21st  of  October, 


A   NEW   WORLD.  23 

1492.  And  now  here  was  Kachel  Finley,  on  terms  of 
alliance,  offensive  and  defensive,  witli  a  ladylike  woman 
whose  name  he  did  not  know,  but  who  spoke  of  "  we" 
and  of  "  ns"  as  one  having  authority. 

But  Mr.  "Wolff  thought,  perhaps  thought  rightly,  that 
he  had  exhausted  the  privileges  of  a  fellow-traveller  in 
the  suggestions  he  had  already  made.  Possibly  a  young 
man  of  twenty  was  not  the  best  conceivable  guide,  coun- 
sellor, and  friend  for  a  penniless  girl  of  fourteen  flung 
ashore  by  the  sea. 

He  let  the  talk  take  the  drift  it  would.  And  when 
Miss  Smith  determined  that  they  had  stayed  long  enough 
he  gave  them  his  escort  back  to  the  "  Bureau."  Here, 
of  course,  the  mere  official  aspect  of  the  place  answered 
some  of  his  questions,  though  they  did  not  wholly  satisfy 
him.  At  Miss  Child's  door  he  was  significantly  enough 
advised  that  his  presence  was  not  needed  further.  And 
after  some  inquiries  in  the  other  offices  he  went  his  way. 

Meanwhile  Miss  Child  had  been  as  good  as  her  word. 
So  soon  as  the  two  had  left  her  to  "see  the  sights," 
Miss  Child  had  walked  through  to  the  telephone  in  Mr. 
Patten's  room. 

"  Give  me  the  Adams  House." 

And  they  gave  her  the  Adams  House. 

"Is  Mrs.  Lois  Winchell  in  ?" 

The  Adams  House  waited,  and  in  a  minute  Mrs.  Lois 
Winchell  announced  herself  as  waiting  for  news. 

"  I  am  Miss  Child,  of  the  Employers'  Aid.  I  think 
we  have  what  you  want.  She  is  an  English  girl,  neat 
and  nice  ;  has  just  been  rescued  from  a  wreck.  She  has 
now  no  father  and  no  mother,  but  they  may  turn  up  at 
any  minute." 

And  Mrs.  Lois  Winchell  answered, 

"  Can  she  read  and  write  ?" 


24  THE   FORTUNES   OF   EACHEL. 

Poor,  disgraced  Miss  Child,  in  the  excitement  of  the 
morning,  had  neglected  to  ask.  But  she  replied, 

"  I  think  so.  I  am  almost  sure.  You  will  like  her 
when  you  see  her." 

"What  religion  is  she?"  persisted  Mrs.  Lois  Win- 
chell. 

Again  Miss  Child  was  at  a  loss.  But  unflinchingly 
she  replied,  "  Oh,  that  is  all  right.  You  had  better 
come  and  see  her." 

"  What  shall  I  do  when  her  father  comes  ?" 

"  Send  to  me  for  another,"  said  the  unblushing  Miss 
Child,  who  knew  perfectly  how  large  were  her  resources. 

"I  had  not  meant  to  go  out,"  said  Mrs.  Winchell, 
doubtfully.  But  the  woman  who  hesitates  is  lost. 

"  Then  I  must  let  her  go  somewhere  else,"  said  Miss 
Child  boldly. 

"  Oh,  well.  If  you  cannot  wait,  I  will  come.  Only 
my  sister  is  spending  the  day  with  me.  I  will  be  at 
your  office  at  two." 

"  She  shall  be  here  at  two.     Good-by." 

"  Good-by."  And  Miss  Child  returned  to  her  office 
and  sent  three  spinners  from  Lancashire  to  Holyoke, 
four  maids  of  all  work  from  Ireland  to  Coos  County, 
five  telegraph  operators  to  Nova  Scotia,  and  six  cham- 
bermaids to  the  Mermaid  Hotel  at  Nantasket.  As  the 
last  of  the  Mermaids  retired  Miss  Smith  returned  with 
Rachel,  and  in  five  minutes  more  Mrs.  Lois  Winchell, 
on  the  stroke  of  two  o'clock,  came  in. 

"  Dear  Miss  Child,  where  should  1  be  without  you? 
You  are  as  good  as  your  word.  When  I  left  Hitchin 
this  morning,  as  I  sat  in  the  depot,  Mary  Fifield  was 
there.  And  she  said,  '  Mrs.  Winchell,  if  you  stay  in 
Boston  till  you  get  a  girl  you  will  be  there  a  week.' 
'  Well,'  said  I,  '  there  are  worse  places  to  be  in.  I  shall 


A   NEW    WOULD.  '25 

see  the  Vokeses  every  night.  And  next  Sunday  I  shall 
hear  Mr.  Clarke  preach,  and  to-day  I  shall  send  for 
Susan  to  come  and  spend  the  day. '  But  all  the  time  1 
said  to  myself,  '  The  Lord  will  provide.  And  if  Miss 
Child  has  not  the  right  girl  for  me  I  am  very  much  mis- 
taken.' " 

All  this  address  Mrs.  Winchell  made  despite  of  signals 
from  poor  Miss  Child  that  it  would  be  better  were  she 
silent.  Silence  was  not  Mi's.  Winchell's  forte. 

"  Shipwrecked,  you  say  ?  Was  she  on  the  Nautilus  ? 
That  was  dreadful.  The  Baikal  ?  No,  1  had  not  heard 
of  the  Baikal.  Oh,  she  is  here  ?  "What,  this  nice  little 
girl  ?  Oh,  I  did  not  understand  you.  And  does  she 
want  to  come  to  me  ?" 

Then  Miss  Child  took  the  floor,  and  with  authority  to 
which  she  was  quite  used,  and  which  was  quite  necessary 
in  her  position,  she  suppressed  Mrs.  Lois  Winchell  for 
some  minutes.  She  explained  what  the  reader  knows — 
that  Rachel  was  temporarily  a  waif,  was  without  any 
father  or  any  mother.  But  she  took  the  most  confident 
view  as  to  the  present  existence  on  this  earth,  or  the  sea 
which  belongs  to  it,  of  both  the  father  and  the  mother. 
Still,  if  they  were  taken  back  to  Liverpool,  as  seemed 
wellnigh  certain,  Rachel  Finley  would  be  in  America 
wellnigh  a  month  before  they  could  join  her.  While 
that  month  passed  she  must  be  somewhere.  Wheru 
better,  that  somewhere,  than  in  Mrs.  Lois  Winchell's 
home  at  Ilitchin  ?  This  was  the  triumphal  question 
with  which  Miss  Child  closed  her  address. 

She  had  put  her  points  well,  and  Mrs.  Winchell  antici- 
pated and  accepted  her  conclusion. 

Indeed,  she  accepted  it  before  it  was  made.  She  had 
long  since  learned  that,  on  such  points,  Miss  Child's 
judgments  were  more  reliable  than  her  own. 


26  THE   FOHTUtfES   OF   HACHEL. 

But  Miss  Child  did  not  expect,  did  not  indeed  permit, 
that  she  should  answer.  "  Eachel,  dear,  go  into  my 
room  with  Mrs.  Winchell  and  talk  with  her  by  your- 
selves." 

Aiid  as  the  girl  went  in,  Miss  Child,  who  knew  in  her 
own  heart  how  closely  she  was  drawn  herself  to  the  poor 
little  thing,  whispered  to  her,  "  Do  nothing  but  what 
you  like.  You  are  with  friends  here.  But  she  is  a 
friend  too.  Do  not  be  afraid  of  her,  though  she  talks  so 
much  and  is  so  funny.' ' 

So  the  two  retired. 

And  when  they  were  alone  Mrs.  Winchell  sat  down 
and  drew  the  poor  frightened  girl  toward  her  by  one 
hand,  even  made  her  partly  sit  on  the  somewhat  refrac- 
tory lap,  from  which  a  little  dog  even  would  have  rolled 
off,  borne  down  by  gravitation.  In  a  minute  more  Mrs. 
Winchell's  arm  was  round  Rachel's  waist. 

"  So  you  are  named  Rachel,  my  dear.  You  do  not 
know  how  natural  that  sounds.  Why,  I  am  named  Lois 
myself."  And  then  she  laughed.  "  Is ot  that  that  is 
anything  to  you.  But  you  see  I  had  an  Aunt  Lois,  and 
she  had  a  sister  Rachel.  They  are  both  Bible  names, 
you  see,  only  one  is  Old  Testament  and  one  is  New,  you 
know." 

"  Yes,  ma'am,"  faltered  poor  Rachel. 

"  And  that  is  why  '  Rachel '  sounds  natural,  and  that 
is  what  I  meant  to  say.  Now,  don't  you  cry,  dear.  I 
know  all  about  the  sea.  All  of  my  father's  people  were 
seafaring  people,  and  before  I  was  married  1  always 
lived  at  Chatham.  They  are  gone  ever  so  long  some 
times,  but  they  turn  up  at  last.  Why,  there  was  Captain 
Cobb,  he  sailed  the  Westmoreland.  She  was  lost  in  the 
South  Sea,  and  they  all  went  ashore  on  the  reef.  And 
he  had  to  go  to  Pitcairn's  Island,  and  he  had  to  build  a 


A    NEW    WORLD.  27 

schooner  there  ;  and  he  built  it,  and  they  came  home — 
they  all  came  home.  He  did  not  lose  one  man.  But 
his  wife — she  was  in  mourning,  and  all  the  children  were 
in  mourning,  and  they  had  all  been  in  mourning  eight 
months — when  one  Sunday  afternoon,  just  as  meeting 
was  over  and  they  were  coming  out  of  the  house,  up 
drove  a  buggy  from  Brewster,  and  there  was  Captain 
Cobb  as  natural  as  ever,  only  a  little  stouter.  They 
always  turn  up  so.  And  you  must  not  cry.  But  what 
is  your  other  name  ?" 

Eachel  told  her,  and  told  her  her  father's  plans  in 
coming  to  America. 

"  Quite  right,  my  dear  ;  he  is  quite  right.  Why  they 
do  not  all  come  I  do  not  know,  and  never  did.  Well, 
when  he  comes  we  will  send  to  Hitcliin  for  him.  Per- 
haps he  will  like  to  stay  in  Hitchin.  All.  the  young  men 
go  away.  I  am  sure  I  do  not  know  why.  For  there  are 
good  farms  in  Hitchin  as  I  want  to  see.  And  if  your 
father  was  only  a  blacksmith,  why,  Goodchild  wants  a 
striker  badly ;  he  said  so  to  me  Tuesday  when  I  took 
Fanny  there  to  be  shod.  Any  way,  I  am  glad  he  is 
coming  to  America.  And  your  dear  mother— how  does 
she  like  the  water  ?  Is  she  sea-sick  ?  Oh,  I  am  horri- 
bly sea-sick  w'hen  I  go." 

Poor  Rachel  put  in  a  word  edgewise  to  say  that  her 
mother  was  not  so  good  a  sailor  as  she.  But  Mrs.  "Wiu- 
chell  was  already  in  full  career. 

"Miss  Child  thinks  you  had  better  come  to  Hitchin 
and  wait.  And  I  think  so  too.  But  you  shall  not  come 
if  you  do  not  want  to.  Miss  Child  shall  not  manage  you 
as  she  does  me.  You  have  some  rights,  my  dear  child, 
though  I  have  none.  She  does  as  she  chooses  with  me, 
but  I  will  make  a  stout  fight  for  you.  Can  you  read, 
my  dear  child  ?" 


28  THE   FORTUNES   OF   KACHEL. 

"  Why,  of  course  I  can  read,"  said  Rachel,  amazed  at 
the  question. 

''  Yes,  of  course  you  can.  But,  you  see,  there  is  so 
much  said  about  public  education,  and  all  that,  how 
should  I  know?  Eead  me  this,  my  dear."  And  Mrs. 
Winchell  took  from  her  bag  a  volume  of  "  The  Standard 
Library." 

With  a  very  sweet  voice — a  low  contralto — without 
the  least  nasal  twang,  with  no  sort  of  hesitation  on  the 
one  side  or  pretence  on  the  other,  Rachel  read  a  dozen 
lines  from  Mrs.  Holloway's  "  Hours  with  Charlotte 
Bronte." 

Mrs.  Winchell  listened,  well  pleased.  "  That  is  really 
the  best  thing  of  all,"  she  said.  "  If  you  are  good  at 
finding  lost  spectacles,  if  you  do  that  half  as  well  as  you 
read  English,  you  will  do  very  well  for  me.  Hunting 
up  spectacles,  going  to  the  door,  and  reading  aloud  in 
the  evenings  are  the  chief  things  I  need  of  you.  Can 
you  drive  a  horse  ?" 

"Why,  no,"  said  Eacliel,  startled.  "Of  course  I 
cannot.  At  least  I  never  tried." 

Mrs.  Winchell  laughed  heartily.  "  We  will  have  you 
try.  And  you  shall  harness  one  too.  No  woman  is  in- 
dependent till  she  can  put  a  horse's  collar  and  his  harness 
on.  I  am  afraid  Mrs.  Darusmont  did  not  know  that. 
But  she  will  learn  where  she  is  now.  They  all 
mean  well,  and  they  will  all  learn.  People  who  talk  so 
much  as  they  do  must  say  a  great  many  foolish  things. 
But  people  who  mean  well  will  all  learn. 

"  You  will  do  for  me  very  well,  my  poor  dear  little 
girl.  But  now  comes  the  question,  which  is  much  more 
important,  how  well  shall  I  do  for  you  ? 

"  You  see  what  I  look  like.  I  am  sixty  years  old, 
and  I  am  rather  fussy.  I  like  to  talk,  and  I  do  not  like 


A   NEW   WORLD.  29 

to  be  interrupted.  I  like  to  read,  but  my  eyes  are  not 
what  they  were  when  I  was  fourteen.  I  like  to  give 
advice,  and  few  people  like  to  hear  advice.  I  live  eighty 
miles  from  here,  in  a  quiet  country  town  named  Hitchin, 
as  you  heard  me  say.  The  men,  as  1  tell  you,  all  go 
away  from  it.  All  the  more  do  the  women  do  very 
much  as  they  choose.  1  have  time  enough  for  my 
books,  time  enough  for  my  chickens,  time  enough  for 
my  letters,  time  enough  for  my  friends,  time  enough  for 
my  garden,  when  I  can  keep  the  chickens  out  of  it. 
Life  would  be  quite  tolerable  to  me — my  dear  Rachel,  is 
quite  tolerable  to  me — but  for  two  or  three  things.  And 
those  things  make  me  come  to  Miss  Child.  And  in 
these  things  she  befriends  me.  First,  as  I  tell  you,  I  can- 
not read  when  I  want  to.  I  cannot  or  ought  not  to  read 
in  the  evening  at  all.  Second,  as  I  tell  you,  or  ought  to 
tell  you,  1  cannot  keep  the  hens  out  of  the  garden. 
They  are  too  quick  for  me.  And  for  one  hen  I  drive 
out  1  break  down  a  dozen  of  my  gladioluses.  Third, 
both  these  burdens  1  could  bear,  and  would  bear,  but 
that  1  lose  my  glasses.  I  lose  them  in  all  sorts  of  places. 
1  buy  a  dozen  pair  at  a  time.  1  bought  a  dozen  of  M-r. 
Millar  this  morning,  and  they  are  in  this  bag  now.  But 
I  can  lose  a  dozen  pair  in  two  days.  I  can  lose  them 
faster  than  any  one  can  lind  them.  Mind  me,  dear 
child,"  said  the  old  lady,  laughing,  "  this  is  not  my 
fault.  Not  at  all.  It  is  my  constitution.  I  was  born 
under  that  star,  if  you  know  what  that  means.  The 
star  of  losing  spectacles.  Now  you  see  whether  1  shall 
suit  you.  How  should  you  like  to  spend  a  week,  or  two 
weeks,  or  three  with  an  odd  old  lady  who  will  be  all  the 
time  sending  you  out  of  the  house  to  drive  the  hens  away 
from  her  flowers,  and  when  you  are  not  doing  that  will 
bid  you  get  up  and  look  for  her  spectacles  ?" 


30  THE    FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

Long  before  she  liad  come  thus  far  Rachel  had  been 
heart-drawn  by  the  gentleness  and .  tenderness  of  the  old 
lady.  And  all  her  answer,  sudden  and  without  thought 
indeed,  was  given  when,  with  eyes  full,  she  said, 
"  Thank  you,  so  very  much  ;  thank  you.  1  shall  be 
very  pleased  to  go."  And  then  with  an  impulse  she 
could  not  account  for  Mrs.  Winchell  kissed  the  girl. 
Rachel  was  fully  conscious  that  she  had  been  eager,  if 
she  had  dared,  to  kiss  her  new  mistress. 

The  bargain  was  made.  Miss  Child  herself  did  not 
dare  ask  on  what  terms  when  the  two  reappeared  in  her 
office,  and  when  Mrs.  Winchell  told  her  that  they  had 
agreed. 

"Have  her  at  the  Ladies'  Room  at  the  Maine  Station 
at  3.40,  is  it  ?  I  do  not  know  when  it  is.  But  you  will 
know  my  train." 


CHAPTER  IY. 


"  The  sheltered  cot,  the  cultivated  farm, 
The  never-failing  brook,  the  busy  mill, 
The  decent  church  that  topped  the  neighboring  hill." 

Deserted 


THE  experience  of  riding  by  rail  was  almost  a  novelty 
to  Rachel.  In  England  an  occasional  little  ride  to  her 
aunt's,  and  the  long  pull  to  Liverpool  which  had 
brought  her  to  the  fatal  passage  in  the  Baikal,  were  all 
the  experiments  of  travel  in  her  short  life.  And  she 
did  not  find  these  precisely  repeated,  now  that  her  ex- 
perience of  i^ew-England  began. 

Miss  Child  herself  took  her  to  the  station  with  her 
newly  arranged  luggage.  Miss  Child  checked  the  trunk 
and  valise,  and  gave  the  checks  to  Rachel  with  a  little  in- 
struction on  their  uses.  "  Remember,  my  dear  child, 
that  they  are  your  trunks.  Put  them  in  your  pocket, 
and  remember  it  is  an  ingenious  invention  by  which  you 
can  carry  your  trunk  in  your  pocket."  Among  forlorn 
women,  and  cheerful  women,  and  women  who  constantly 
rose  and  looked  out  at  the  door,  and  other  women  who 
sat  steadily  and  read  "  The  Standard  Library  "  and 
other  approved  serials,  registered  to  go  by  mail  in  class 
No.  2,  they  sat,  up  to  a  moment  which  the  careful  Miss 
Child  thought  late,  when  Mrs.  Winchell  suddenly  ap- 
peared, not  flurried,  but  prompt,  with  a  porter  from  the 


32  THE   FORTUNES   OF   RACHEL. 

Adams  House,  who  evidently  knew  her  and  her  eccen- 
tricities well. 

"Here  we  are,"  she  said.  "  Kow,  Leah,  bid  Miss 
Child  good-by,  and  ask  her  to  be  as  good  a  friend  to 
you  as  she  has  been  to  me." 

Poor  sobbing  Rachel  needed  no  quickening.  She  was 
in  the  kind  lady's  arms,  with  the  tears  wetting  the 
cheeks  of  both.  It  seemed  to  her  a  world  of  good-bys. 
No  father,  no  mother,  no  Captain  Ryland,  no  Mr. 
Wolff,  and  now,  just  as  she  knew  this  nice  Miss  Child, 
she  must  bid  her  good-by  forever  too. 

"  Do  not  mind,  my  dear  girl,  do  not  mind.  Write 
me  a  letter  sometimes,  and  if  you  want  anything  let  me 
know."  And  the  relentless  porter,  following  obedient 
after  Mrs.  Winch  ell,  led  Hachel  away. 

"  Drawing-room  car  ?"  asked  the  official  on  duty  at 
the  door  of  that  palace. 

"  That  depends.  Have  you  two  seats  together  on 
the  east  side  ?  I  shall  not  roast  in  the  sun,  nor  my  little 
girl  here."  And  she  looked  at  the  ground  plan  of  the 
palace.  "  You  are  sure  you  are  going  this  way?  You 
know  if  you  once  turn  me  round  I  will  never  ride  in 
your  old  machine  again.  Eighteen  ?  Seventeen  ?  Yes, 
mark  these  two.  Come  here,  Leah,  come  here.  Good- 
by,  dear  Miss  Child,  good-by.  I  wish  you  would  soon 
come  and  see  how  we  live.  Good-by,  good-by." 
And  then  she  took  from  the  porter  the  last  purchases — 
the  new  shawl  for  Rachel  among  other  things — and  who 
shall  say  how  many  wraps  and  hand-bags  ? 

"Your  checks  is  in  the  red  Russia  bag,  mum,"  said 
the  man  as  she  tipped  him.  And  she,  as  she  turned  to 
Rachel,  "  Leah,  dear,  try  to  remember  that,  for  I  shall 
forget.  The  checks  are  in  the  red  Russia  bag.  That 
means  that  leather  bag.  You  may  keep  that  in  your 


HITCH  IX.  33 

charge,  Leuli.  That  shall  be  your  first  responsibility. 
Now  help  me  to  find  17.  1  never  can  read  their  num- 
bers in  the  darkness." 

The  girl  was  dazed  and  amazed.  But  a  sense  of 
humor  helped  her  through,  when  she  noticed  the  readi- 
ness with  which  a  new  country  had  given  her  a  new 
name.  •  She  found  numbers  17  and  18.  Mrs.  Winchell 
settled  herself  and  her  belongings,  and  at  the  instant  the 
train  passed  into  the  open  air. 

And  now  Rachel  screwed  herself  up  to  one  great  act 
of  courage. 

She  certainly  hoped  to  please  this  queer  kind  lady 
whose  home  was  to  be  her  place  of  work  for  three  weeks 
or  four.  As  for  its  being  her  own  home,  such  a  wild 
presumption  never  crossed  Rachel's  mind.  She  cer- 
tainly did  not  want  to  offend  her  at  the  outset.  But, 
without  much  reasoning,  Rachel  felt  "in  her  bones," 
as  Mrs.  Winchell  would  have  said,  that  if  she  were  to 
lose  her  name  because  she  was  in  strange  clothes,  in  a 
strange  house,  in  a  strange  land,  she  should  lose  every- 
thing. That  was  all  she  had  left  to  stand  by.  And, 
with  a  divine  instinct,  Rachel  understood  that  the  mat- 
ter of  name  was  no  trifle. 

Mrs.  Winchell  looked  serenely  on  the  bay  as  the 
train  swept  across  the  bridge,  with  nothing  which  sug- 
gested any  desire  for  conversation.  In  fact,  she  was 
going  back  in  a  hasty  review  of  the  day  to  see  if  she  had 
done  three  things  which  she  ought  to  have  done,  and  if 
she  had  not  left  undone  three  and  thirty. 

"  Please,  Mrs.  Winchell,"  said  Rachel  boldly,  "  would 
you  be  good  enough,  when  you  speak  to  me,  to  call  me 
Rachel?" 

"  My  dear  little  Leah,  of  course  I  will,  of  course  I 
will.  I  beg  your  pardon  twenty  thousand  times.  My 


34  THE   FORTUNES    OF   ItACHEL. 

poor  little  Leah,  you  are  not  ill-fa  scored  at  all.  But  how 
shall  I  ever  remember  ?  The  very  first  moment  Miss 
Child  said  your  name  was  Eachel — no,  you  said  so  your- 
self— my  Aunt  Leah  crossed  the  canvas,  as  our  dear 
Mr.  Primrose  would  say,  and  from  that  moment  that 
became  your  name.  But,  dear  child,  do  not  be  fright- 
ened. You  shall  not  lose  your  name.  How  ever  shall 
we  manage  it  ? 

"I  will  tell  you,  Leah. 

"  Whenever  I  call  you  Leah,  remember,  you  shall 
not  answer  me. ' 

And  so,  in  what  did  not  seem  a  long  three  hours,  they 
found  themselves  in  Ilitchin.  There  was  not  one  point 
in  the  ride  from  the  railway  station  to  Mrs.  Winchell 's 
comfortable  old-fashioned  mansion  which  resembled 
Rachel's  experience  when  she  had  made  her  annual  visit 
to  her  English  aunt  at  the  seaside.  The  carriage  in 
which  they  rode  was  different,  the  trees  by  the  way- 
side were  different,  the  terrace  in  front  of  the  house 
was  different,  the  steps  to  the  front  door  were  dif- 
ferent. 

When  they  entered,  the  rooms  were  different,  the  fur- 
niture was  different ;  but  Mrs.  Winchell  was  as  kind  as  her 
Aunt  Ann  would  have  been  to  Eachel,  was  quite  as  kind 
as  any  aunts  could  have  been,  and  the  child  was  as  hun- 
gry as  she  had  ever  been  in  her  life. 

If  she  had  but  known  it,  indeed,  she  was  as  tired.  She 
had  gone  through,  in  one  day,  experiences  as  varied  as 
some  people  extend  over  a  lifetime. 

"  Your  bed  is  the  place  for  you,  dear  Leah,"  said 
Mrs.  Winchell,  and  this  time  poor  Eachel  had  neither 
heart  nor  strength  to  make  any  battle  with  her. 

She  had  hardly  more  than  a  chance  to  see  how  pretty 
and  pleasant  was  her  bedroom,  and  then,  with  the 


HITCHIN.  35 

happy  omnipotence  of  girlhood,  she  fell  asleep  and  slept, 
without  turning  on  her  pillow,  till  morning. 

It  was  not  till  the  morning  was  nearly  over  that  the 
impending  battle  came.  As  Rachel  dressed  herself  she 
had  been  only  too  sure  that  it  must  come.  She  was  not 
quarrelsome,  but  she  had  girded  herself  to  it.  She 
must  meet  the  enemy — no,  dear  kind  old  Mrs.  Winchell 
was  not  her  enemy,  but  she  must  meet  her  in  fair  field, 
though  she  had  not  either  stone  or  sling. 

The  girl  would  not  lose  her  name.  She  had  lost  her 
country,  her  ship,  her  clothing,  her  books  —  her  place 
in  the  world  she  had  lost.  Perhaps,  as  the  reader  knows, 
she  had  lost  her  father  and  her  mother.  But  Rachel 
would  not  say  that,  even  to  herself  ;  nay,  was  not  even 
troubled  by  the  thought.  So  easy  had  been  her  own 
boat  voyage,  that  it  was  not  easy  for  her  to  think  the 
others  fared  worse.  Still,  the  other  realities  of  life  she 
had  lost.  And  for  the  time  she  had  lost  father  and 
mother.  She  had  nothing  left  to  her  but  her  name. 

"  That  I  cannot  lose,"  said  Rachel  aloud,  as  she 
brushed  her  hair  in  front  of  the  pretty  looking-glass,  sit- 
ting at  the  pretty  dressing-table  of  her  room. 

"  That  I  cannot  lose."  And  then  the  girl  remem- 
bered how  her  cousin  Martha,  who  was  a  little  stage- 
struck,  used  to  spout : 

"  He  that  filches  from  me  my  good  name, 
Robs  me  of  that  which  not  enriches  him, 
And  makes  me  poor  indeed." 

So  Rachel  .went  down-stairs  girt  for  battle. 

But,  as  usual,  when  one  is  all  ready  for  battle,  battle 
did  not  come. 

We  used  to  read  in  those  too  dull  histories  at  school 
that  Marshal  Daun  drew  out  his  army  and  offered  bat- 


36  THE   FORTUNES   OF   RACHEL. 

tie,  but  that  Marshal  Kraun  refused.  And  so  it  was 
here.  Breakfast  passed  without  a  breeze,  and  Rachel 
learned  the  names  of  ten  articles  of  food  she  had  never 
seen  before.  Then  she  helped  Mrs.  Winchell,  as  she 
washed  the  cups  and  saucers  and  put  them  away.  She 
went  into  the  garden  with  her,  and  cut  the  flowers.  She 
walked  from  room  to  room  with  her  in  her  daily  progress, 
and  gradually  learned  the  names  of  the  red  parlor  and 
the  green  parlor,  the  colonel's  room,  and  the  chamber  in 
the  ell.  She  held  a  skein  of  yarn  while  Mrs.  Winchell 
wound  it.  She  received  careful  instruction  about  Van 
Stan's  stratena,  and  held  the  bottle  while  Mrs.  Win- 
chell mended  the  broken  head  of  a  Venus  de  Milo  which 
had  been  knocked  down  in  her  absence.  She  was  taught 
the  difference  between  this  cement  and  liquid  glue — 
when  she  was  to  use  the  one  and  when  the  other. 

But  in  all  this  there  was  never  a  moment  for  battle. 
Kay,  Rachel  even  forgot  that  she  was  girt  for  battle. 

But  there  was  one  moment  which  reminded  her  that 
the  cloud  still  threatened. 

"  No,  my  dear  child,  you  had  better  not  call  me  Mrs. 
Winchell.  Very  few  people  whom  I  like  call  me  Mrs. 
Winchell.  Even  Mr.  Tyndale  calls  me  Aunt  Lois. 
And  I  like  you,  my  dear  child,  so  you  will  call  me  Aunt 
Lois— if  you  like  to,"  she  added  almost  fearfully,  as  if 
she  might  have  gone  too  far. 

"If  I  like  to  !"  cried  Rachel,  with  the  tears  in  her 
eyes  ;  "  of  course  I  like  to."  And  at  that  moment  the 
thought  of  battle  crossed  her  mind,  and  it  seemed  like 
an  ugly  dream,  and  all  her  grand  resolves  to  be  the  wild 
delirium  of  rebellion. 

But  all  the  same  the  cloud  burst  and  the  shock  came. 

And  the  air  was  the  clearer  after  it  was  over. 

The   morning  mail  had  come.      Mrs.  Winchell   had 


HITCHIX.  37 

extended  herself  on  her  sofa  to  read  her  Advertiser. 
"Let  us  see  what  Mr.  Hale  says,"  she  said,  as  she 
opened  the  paper,  though  it  was  twenty  years  since 
Mr.  Hale  had  been  its  editor.  She  had  given  to  Rachel 
Miss  Alcott's  "  Little  Women,"  and  Rachel  was  ab- 
sorbed for  the  first  time  in  the  luxury  of  the  compan- 
ionship of  those  estimable  persons. 

Half  an  hour  passed  quietly  when  Mrs.  Winchell  was 
called  into  the  hall  to  see  a  man  who  had  maps  of  Pales- 
tine to  sell.  She  disposed  of  him  by  giving  to  him  two 
pictures  of  Jerusalem,  a  cup  of  coffee  and  a  slice  of  bread 
and  butter,  and  a  chromolith  of  the  mosque  at  Delhi. 
She  explained  to  him  that  he  was  never  under  any  cir- 
cumstances to  come  to  that  house  again. 

The  man  departed,  and  the  old  lady  returned  to  her 
sofa  and  her  newspaper.  But  her  spectacles  were  no- 
where to  be  found. 

"  What  have  I  done  with  my  glasses  ?"  she  cried. 
"  Leah,  my  child,  now  your  real  duties  have  begun  ; 
look  in  the  hall,  look  on  the  mat,  and  see  where  I  have 
laid  those  things. " 

But  Rachel  never  lifted  an  eyelid  or  moved  a  muscle. 

"  Leah,  Leah  !"  cried  the  old  lady,  impatiently. 
"  Don't  you  hear  me  ?  I  have  lost  my  glasses,  and  I  am 
miserable  without  them." 

But  Rachel  never  stirred. 

"  Can  this  child  be  hard  of  hearing?"  said  Aunt  Lois 
aloud ;  "  how  strange  that  I  have  never  noticed  it  before." 
And  a  sort  of  horror  came  over  her  at  the  suspicion  that 
she  was  losing  her  own  quickness  of  perception.  The 
other  fear,  that  she  had  imported  an  incompetent  assist- 
ant into  the  household,  scarcely  crossed  her  unselfish 
mind. 

She  crossed  to  where  the  girl  sat,  touched  her  on  the 


38  TFIE    FORTUNES    OF    RACHEL. 

shoulder,  and  in  a  loud  tone,  as  if  she  were  calling  to  a 
workman  at  the  other  end  of  the  garden,  she  cried  slowly 
and  very  distinctly,  "  My  dear  child,  I  have  lost  my 
glasses. ' ' 

Rachel  sprang  to  her  feet,  and  in  a  moment  brought 
them  back  to  the  wondering  old  lady.  "  Here  they  are, 
dear  Aunt  Lois,"  she  said,  blushing  but  fearless. 

It  was  the  first  time  she  had  used  the  familiar  title  of 
endearment.  "  I  am  not  deaf  ;  I  heard  you  speak  both 
times  before.  But  it  seemed  as  if  you  were  speaking  to 
your  father's  sister,  though  I  did  not  see  her  here.'5 

"You  are  a  little  witch,"  cried  Aunt  Lois,  more  in 
admiration  than  in  anger,  and  she  stooped  and  kissed  the 
child,  who  was  by  this  time  frightened  at  her  ovrn  cour- 
age. 

Aunt  Lois  was  not  given  to  kissing,  and  the  victory 


CHAPTER  Y. 

THE   DEMANDS   OF    SOCIETY. 

"  Right  well  she  knew,  each  temper  to  descry, 
To  thwart  the  proud  and  the  snbiniss  to  raise." 

Shenstone. 

"  RACHEL,"  said  Mrs.  Winchell  on  the  second  morn- 
ing, "  I  have  quite  settled  it  in  the  night  that  you  shall 
go  to  school." 

"  Yes,  ma'am." 

But  poor  Rachel's  heart  sank  as  she  said,  "  Yes, 
ma'am."  For  going  to  school  in  a  strange  land,  among 
these  strange-looking  girls,  seemed  almost  like  falling  into 
the  sea  to  be  pulled  out  by  another  set  of  boat-hooks. 
And  it  seemed  again  like  permanency  in  1-litchin,  while 
she  had  all  along  supposed  that  she  was  here,  as  it  were, 
only  on  a  visit  of  a  few  weeks,  until  the  glad  despatch 
should  come  telling  her  in  which  part  of  the  world  her 
father  and  mother  had  landed.  So  it  was  with  a  big 
lump  in  her  throat  that  Rachel  assented. 

Mrs.  Winchell  was  quick  enough  to  catch  the  tone  of 
the  girl's  feeling,  and  quick  enough  to  address  it  on  the 
instant. 

"  You  see,  my  dear  child,  it  is  only  the  summer 
school,  and  it  will  only  last  two  or  three  weeks  more. 
You  will  not  learn  anything— at  least  anything  to  speak 
of.  But  you  will  see  the  other  girls,  and  that  will  be 
better  for  you  than  to  be  shut  up  with  an  old  woman 
here  all  the  time."  And  after  a  pause:  "  It  is  some- 


40  THE    FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

tiring  to  see  and  hear  ~<iamiah  Gate,  and  be  near 
her." 

"Seeing  the  other  girls"  \vas  the  last  thing  to  recom- 
mend the  new  enterprise  to  poor  Rachel.  What  little  she 
had  seen  of  other  girls  had  only  impressed  her  with  pro- 
found terror  since  she  had  been  in  America.  There  had 
been  a  group  of  other  girls  hanging  round  the  railroad  sta- 
tion when  she  and  her  mistress  left  the  train.  And 
Each  el  had  shrunk  with  horror  from  their  keen  investi- 
gation of  her  and  her  belongings.  Why  they  were  there 
at  all  was  a  mystery  to  her.  Had  they  no  mothers  or 
fathers,  or  possibly  no  homes  ? 

But  Rachel  did  not  dare  say  a  single  word  in  reply 
to  Mrs.  Winch  ell.  If  she  were  to  go  to  school,  to  school 
she  would  go,  and  she  would  pray  God,  as  she  had  so 
often,  that  she  might  do  her  duty  in  the  place  of  life  to 
which  He  should  be  pleased  to  call  her. 

Only  in  her  carnal  heart  she  did  wish  that  He  had 
not  been  pleased  to  call  her  to  the  summer  school  of  Dis- 
trict No.  11. 

District  No.  11.  For,  as  it  happened,  by  good  fort- 
une or  ill  fortune,  Mrs.  Winchell  lived  just  without  the 
magic  line  of  the  "  Centre  District."  Had  Rachel  and 
Mrs.  Winchell  lived  inside  this  line,  Rachel  would  have 
had  but  a  short  walk  to  the  Centre  School,  and  she 
would  have  had  certain  facilities  for  education  which  to 
the  Centre  School  belonged.  But,  as  it  happened,  the 
line  ran  just  on  the  other  side  of  Mrs.  WincheH's  barn, 
and  so  Rachel  had  every  morning  a  walk  of  three  quar- 
ters of  a  mile  out  in  the  open  country  to  the  school-house 
of  District  No.  11.  The  school  kept  here— if  one  use 
the  slang  of  the  profession — was  not  a  graded  school  ;  it 
was  a  district  school,  and  received  all  comers  from  a-b-c- 
darians  at  the  one  hand  to  curious  inquirers  into  bino- 


THE    DEMANDS    OF    SOCIETY.  41 

mial  theorems   on    the   other.     Over    all   comers   Miss 
Hannah  Gate  presided. 

.  Mrs.  Winchell  had  the  wit  and  knowledge  of  affairs  to 
address  a  note  to  Miss  Hannah,  in  which  she  told  her  of 
her  new  pupil,  and  asked  her  to  take  tea  that  evening, 
that  teacher  and  pupil  might  be  the  better  acquainted. 
This  note  was  intrusted  to  a  barefoot  boy,  who  was  inter- 
cepted for  this  purpose  on  his  way  to  school  at  the  Five 
Corners,  and  by  a  miracle  the  boy  remembered  to  deliver 
the  note  before  the  morning  school  was  over.  Accord- 
ingly Miss  Hannah  appeared  after  the  afternoon  session, 
and  was  made  cordially  welcome. 

Rachel  saw  in  an  instant  that  all  was  well.  Here  was 
no  she-dragon  with  a  rod  in  one  hand  and  a  slate  in  the 
other,  glowering  angrily  through  green  spectacles,  as 
Rachel's  too  ready  fancy  had  pictured  from  the  first  mo- 
ment. A  slight,  fair,  tall,  pretty  girl,  very  simply 
dressed,  but  nicely  dressed,  met  Rachel  at  far  more 
than  half  way,  and  captivated  her  in  a  moment.  Miss 
Hannah  had  pinned  in  the  waist  of  her  dress  two  or 
three  spikes  of  cardinal  flowers,  which  were  the  earliest 
of  the  season.  One  of  the  big  boys  had  brought  them, 
in  homage  to  her,  and  they  had  been  kept  fresh  all  day. 
They  were  the  first  Rachel  ever  saw,  and  she  never  in 
her  life  saw  another  but  she  thought  of  dear  Miss 
Hannah. 

So  this  was  the  ogre  into  whose  hands  she  was  to  be 
delivered  the  next  morning. 

"  Dear  Aunt  Lois,  how  good  for  you  to  send  for  me. 
And  1  have  stretched  your  invitation.  I  went  home  at 
noon  and  brought  my  brush  and  comb  and  all  my  things, 
and  I  am  going  to  spend  the  night  with  you.  Then  I 
can  take  Rachel  to  school  in  the  morning,  and  she  will 
not  be  afraid." 


4--^  THK    FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

Half  the  load  was  lifted  from  poor  Eacliel  already. 
But  was  this  really  the  schoolmistress  ?  Why,  she  was 
only  a  little  taller  than  Rachel's  Cousin  Polly  in  Haworth, 
and  she  did  not  look  a  day  older.  Rachel  was  not  afraid 
of  Polly  at  all.  They  always  spent  the  summer  together 
ut  Aunt  Ann's.  Was  it  possible  that  she  should  be  no 
more  afraid  of  Miss  Hannah  than  she  was  of  Cousin 
Polly  ? 

Possible  it  was,  and  so  it  proved. 

From  that  beginning  the  school  was  never  a  terror,  but 
a  simple  joy.  They  walked  to  the  school-house  the  next 
morning  with  a  train  of  coadjutors,  increasing  with  every 
house  they  passed,  till  a  troop  of  ten  or  eleven  entered 
together.  The  two  who  held  Miss  Hannah's  hand  were 
in  highest  honor,  and  on  this  sacred  occasion  Rachel 
was  one  of  the  two.  Queer  the  children  were  to  her,  and 
mysterious  their  costumes.  Most  of  the  girls  had  pink 
sun-bonnets  made  from  pasteboard  and  calico.  The  boys 
invariably  had  worn  palm-leaf  hats  much  broken  at  the 
edges.  Most  of  the  girls  had  shoes.  None  of  the  boys 
had.  The  lack  was  not  a  sign  of  poverty,  but  of  in- 
dependence. Shoes  would  have  controlled  the  freedom 
of  action  of  their  feet  as  much  as  white  kid  gloves  would 
have  interfered  with  the  uses  to  which  they  meant  to  put 
their  hands.  They  left  both  to  occasions  of  more  cere- 
mony. 

Once  in  the  school-room  all  parties  accepted,  as  of 
course,  a  system  of  more  restraint.  Pink  bonnets  and 
straw  hats  were  hung  in  a  little  porch  or  propylsenm, 
and  teacher  and  scholars  entered  the  square  white  room, 
with  windows  wherever  windows  were  possible,  which 
was  consecrated  to  learning.  Forms  of  pine  wood,  much 
adorned  by  the  carvings  of  a  generation,  gave  two  seats 
each  to  boys  and  girls.  The  whole  company,  including 


THE    DEMAXDS    OF    SOCIETY.  43 

Miss  Hannah,  were  not  twenty.  Precisely  at.  nine  she 
struck  her  bell  ;  all  was  hushed,  and  she  read  a  few  verses 
from  the  Bible  and  repeated  the  Lord's  Prayer.  Then 
the  girl  led  the  children  in  singing  "  Ward,"  and  with 
perfect  good  order  they  all  joined  in  two  verses  of  a 
hymn.  Miss  Hannah  gave  her  orders  to  the  others, 
which  were  obeyed  with  absolute  precision,  and  then  she 
smiled  and  beckoned  to  the  "  new  girl." 

And.  poor  Rachel  was  by  no  means  disgraced  in  her 
first  examination.  It  proved  that  there  were  certain 
matters  which  she  and  Jane  Dyer  and  Relief  Vincent 
could  study  together.  Certain  other  matters  Rachel  was 
to  do  alone.  In  such  matters  as  ab  ab,  she  was  sent  out 
on  the  roadside  with  Tommy  Cash  man  and  lluldah 
Furness  to  quicken  their  halting  memories.  She  had 
brought  a  new  copy-book  with  her,  and  Miss  Hannah, 
who  despised  the  engraved  copies,  set  her  a  line  to  copy. 


Despite  the  queer  pronunciation  and  the  geography 
before  unheard  of,  Rachel  soon  found  that  school  is 
school,  and  her  morning  sped  by  more  quickly  and 
serenely  than  she  could  have  believed. 

And  when  twelve  came,  and  the  moment  of  emanci- 
pation, Rachel  was  surprised  to  think  she  was  so  wholly 
at  home. 

"  Dear  Miss  Hannah,"  cried  Relief  eagerly,  "  to-day 
you  will  stay  with  us.  I  know  you  will.  You  know 
you  said  yon  would  stay  one  day  this  week.  And  I  got 
up  early  this  morning,  and  see  here,  I  baked  all  these 
biscuits  myself  all  on  purpose,  Miss  Hannah.  Oh,  Miss 
Hannah,  it  will  be  a  shame  if  you  do  not  stay  !" 

And  great  hulking  Tom  Henderson  now  produced 
from  a  cool  place  in  the  brook  a  tin  can  containing  two 


44  THE    FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

or  three  quarts  of  thimbleberries,  which  he  had  brought 
in  the  determination  that  Miss  Hannah  should  stay. 
Pies,  doughnuts,  cheese,  even  two  baked  custards  were 
produced,  as  additions  to  the  regale,  all  which  helped 
to  make  the"  invitation  more  irresistible.  And  Jane 
added  to  it,  in  a  sheepish  way,  the  request,  "  Ask  her, 
Miss  Hannah,  if  she  won't  stay  too." 

And  when  it  was  decided  that  Miss  Hannah  would 
stay,  just  for  this  once,  through  the  two  hours'  inter- 
mission, the  victory  was  celebrated  with  enthusiasm. 
Eachel  entered  quite  into  the  spirit  of  the  picnic.  She 
was  only  sorry  she  had  contributed  nothing.  But  now  it 
appeared  that  Miss  Hannah  was  not  unprepared,  and  that 
Mrs.Winchell  had  stored  her  bag  with  such  bonbons  for 
a  dessert  that  she  and  Rachel  were  by  no  means  beggars 
at  the  common  feast. 

This  jolly  lunch  spread  on  the  teacher's,  table  and  the 
forms  of  the  school-house  cemented  Rachel's  relations 
with  all  the  "other  girls."  When  she  went  home  at 
night  she  told  Mrs.  Winchell  that  she  could  not  thank  her 
enough  for  sending  her  to  school,  and  that  she  would 
never  be  afraid  again  of  anything  she  proposed  for  her. 

The  truth  was,  that  these  summer  days,  which  Rachel 
supposed  were  to  be  only  a  queer  little  episode  in  the 
beginning  of  her  new  American  life,  which  she  knew 
must  be  wholly  unlike  her  life  with  her  father  and  her 
mother,  were  striking  for  her  the  keynote  of  it  all.  As 
it  proved,  there  were  to  be  more  than  ten  of  these  days — 
more  than  twenty,  more  than  thirty.  After  a  little  it 
was  clear  that  the  ocean  fleet  of  boats  from  the  Baikal 
had  not  been  relieved  by  any  steamer  for  America. 
After  a  little  more  it  became  only  too  clear  that  no 
steamer  for  England  had  picked  them  up.  One  day, 
about  a  fortnight  after  Rachel's  arrival,  Mr.  Tyndale, 


THE    DEMANDS   OF   SOCIETY.  45 

the  minister,  came  in  with  his  newspaper  in  his  hand,  and 
then  he  was  closeted  with  Mrs.  Winchell  for  half  an 
hour.  Afterward  he  came  in  every  day  so  soon  as  the 
mail  arrived  at  Hitchin,  and  there  was  a  longer  or 
shorter  private  interview.  But  it  was  not  till  more  than  a 
month  after  Rachel's  arrival  in  Boston  that  she  was  sum- 
moned into  the  "  colonel's  room,"  where  these  private 
conferences  took  place,  and  then,  with  all  possible  kind- 
ness, Aunt  Lois  told  the  sobbing  girl  that  there  was  no 
reason  whatever  to  think  that  the  lost  boats  could  ever 
be  found.  Not  one  of  them  had  ever  been  heard  of, 
and  the  resources  of  conjecture  had  been  given  up. 

In  fact,  Mr.  Tyndale  had  heard  from  his  correspond- 
ents in  New  York  that  the  life  companies  there  had 
already  received  notifications  of  the  death  of  people  on 
the  Baikal,  from  friends  who  had  given  up  all  hope  and 
•wished  to  adjust  the  estates  of  the  shipwrecked  men  and 
women. 

Aunt  Lois  was  all  kindness  in  her  rapid,  eager  way. 

"  You  are  here,  dear  child.  That  is  one  thing.  A 
great  rule  in  life  is  to  stay  where  you  are  until  a  door 
opens.  You  do  not  see  any  open  door,  and  I  do  not. 
Till  a  door  opens  you  will  stay  here.  You  see" — with  an 
attempt  at  a  smile — "  I  am  your  guardian  for  the  mo- 
ment. I  must  tell  you  what  to  do.  You  will  stay  here, 
and  you  will  pick  up  my  spectacles,  and  hold  niy  yarn, 
and  drive  away  the  hens  for  me,  till  some  other  mission 
opens,  dear  girl.  You  know,  my  child,  you  know  how 
poor  Aunt  Lois  would  miss  you  if  you  were  not  here."' 
Thus  she  chattered  on,  fairly  dreading  the  depth  of  the 
child's  grief  if  neither  of  them  said  anything.  And  she 
made  poor  Rachel  bend  over  from  the  arm  of  the  chair 
in  which  she  sat  and  cry  upon  her  shoulder, 
nd  Mr.  Tyndale  prudently  went  away. 


A 


40  THE   FORTUNES   OF   KACHEL. 

Then  there  was  correspondence  with  Aunt  Ann— cor- 
respondence wliich  Kachel  hated.  She  liked  Aunt  Ann 
and  her  Cousin  Sarah,  but  she  was  well  aware  that  she 
had  no  wish  to  return  to  England  to  go  to  them  to  live  ; 
indeed,  she  had  already  imbibed  so  much  of  the  New 
Englander  s  spirit  that  she  saw  no  reason  why  she  should. 
They  did  not  want  to  have  her  come,  and  she  did  not 
want  to  go.  That,  in  Rachel's  mind,  settled  the  thing. 
]Sor  did  Aunt  Lois  take  much  interest  in  the  corre- 
spondence. 

"  It  is  Fetich,  my  child  ;  it  is  all  Fetich,"  said  the  queer 
old  lady.  "It  is  the  ancient  Fetich  known  as  '  Re- 
spectability '  whom  we  worship.  There  were  times  when 
the  clan  was  everything,  and  the  clan  had  to  be  held  to- 
gether. And  because  of  those  times,  in  these  times, 
which  are  very  different,  I  am  expected  to  obey  the  old 
Fetich  law.  Why,  last  wreek  my  husband's  second  cousin 
was  killed  in  a  fight  in  Denver.  I  do  not  know  that 
he  was  not  drunk  when  he  died.  I  do  not  know  if  he 
was.  I  do  not  know  anything  about  him.  But  I  do  know 
that  because  Richard  the  First  lived  in  the  feudal  system 
I  was  expected  to  put  a  black  ribbon  on  my  bonnet  when 
the  Hon.  George  Winehell,  Mayor  of  Diggsville,  was 
shot  in  Denver.  I  did  not  do  it,  my  child.  1  would 
not  render  this  homage  to  the  great  Fetich.  But  I  do  it 
now.  I  bend  my  proud  knees,  and  I  write  this  letter  to 
your  Aunt  Ann,  who  does  not  love  you  half  as  much  as  I 
do,  so  that  the  decencies  inherited  from  the  feudal  sys- 
tem may  be  properly  observed." 

Ilachel  hardly  understood  what  her  Aunt  Ann  had 
to  do  with  the  fate  of  the  Mayor  of  Diggsville,  but 
she  said  meekly,  "Aunt  Ann  is  very  nice  and  very 
kind." 

••  My  dear,  I  know  that.     Anybody  you  had  spent  a 


THE    DEMANDS   OF   SOCIETY.  47 

summer  with  would  be  nice  and  kind,  let  alone  spending 
two  or  three  since  you  were  a  little  girl. 

"  But  that  is  no  reason — none,  Rachel — why  she  should 
call  you  back  over  the  seas  and  make  you  take  again, 
alone,  this  horrible  risk,  merely  that  she  and  you  and  I 
may  perform  Baal  worship  before  the  altar  of  the  great 
Dagon  idol  of  Respectability. 

"  Let  Aunt  Ann  be  supreme  on  her  side  of  the  water, 
and  let  me  be  supreme  on  mine." 

Mrs.  "Winchell  need  not  have  distressed  herself.  Aunt 
Ann  was  perhaps  more  of  a  worshipper  of  the  great 
Fetich  of  Respectability  than  Aunt  Lois.  But  Aunt  Ann 
lived  in  the  outskirts  of  a  half-fashionable  watering- 
place,  where  she  knew  to  a  shilling  how  much  a  year's 
life  cost  for  her  and  her  daughter  Sarah.  She  knew  to  a 
shilling  how  much,  dear  Rachel's  bread  and  butter  and  jam 
and  mutton  would  cost,  how  much  her  schooling  would 
cost,  and  her  frocks,  and  bonnets,  and  shoes,  and  shawls, 
and  cloaks.  She  knew  how  long  it  would  be  before 
Rachel  would  earn  anything  even  if  she  rose  to  the  rank 
of  a  governess.  She  knew  how  long  it  would  be  before 
she  would  have  any  chance  to  degrade  herself  to  the  rank 
of  assistant  book-keeper  in  the  well-known  establishment 
of  Shoolbred  &  Fettyplace.  Aunt  Ann  therefore  wrote 
a  letter — not  cordial,  though  it  was  meant  to  be  not  cool. 
It  intimated  quite  distinctly  that  the  original  voyage  was 
not  her  plan  ;  that  her  sister  and  brother  had  undertaken 
it  in  face  of  her  counsels.  It  did  not  say  that  the  sins 
and  imprudences  of  the  parents  must  descend  upon  the 
child,  but  it  implied  as  much.  Then,  lightly  waiving 
the  theological  question  thus  suggested,  the  letter  said 
that  to  return  to  the  practical  question,  perhaps  it  would 
be  best  to  decide  nothing  now.  While  there  was  life 
there  would  always  be  hope.  Aunt  Ann  said,  though 


48  THE    FORTUNES    OF    IIACHEL. 

what  that  remark  had  to  do  with  the  matter  in  hand  she 
did  not  say.  And  as,  before  Eachel  could  sail  for  home 
the  critical  period  of  the  equinoxial  storm  would  be  at 
hand  (Aunt  Ann  prided  herself  on  the  "  equinoxial 
storm"  as  a  masterpiece,  spelling  and  all), — as  Rachel 
seemed  to  be  now  with  dear  Christian  friends,  Aunt  Ann 
ventured  to  take  the  responsibility  of  leaving  the  whole 
decision  to  those  friends,  knowing  that  in  any  event 
Eachel  would  be  a  good  girl,  and  acquiesce  in  her  aunt's 
decision  as  made  from  the  best  motives,  and  try  to  do 
her  duty  in  the  condition  of  life  into  which  ic  should 
please  God  to  place  her. 

Eachel  read  this  letter  twice,  and  gave  it  silently  to 
Aunt  Lois,  who  was  waiting  with  a  good  deal  of  anxiety. 
She  read  it  once  only. 

"  What  does  she  mean,  Eachel  ?  You  ought  to  know 
her  better  than  I." 

"Dear  Aunt  Lois,"  cried  the  girl,  flinging  her  head 
into  the  old  lady's  lap,  "  she  means  that  she  does  not 
want  me  living  with  her,  but  that  she  is  ashamed  to 
say  so. 

"  Do  not  think  hardly  of  her,  dear  Aunt  Lois.  You 
do  not  know  how  hard  she  has  to  pinch  to  keep  inside 
the  lines  of— well,  of  the  class  of  life  she  lives  in. 

"  She  does  love  me,  Aunt  Lois.  If  I  were  there  she 
would  never  send  me  away. 

"  But1  '—here  she  smiled  so  prettily  on  Aunt  Lois— 
"but  I  am  not  there." 

"Thank  God  for  that,  my  child,"  said  Aunt  Lois 
resolutely.  And  she  put  her  arm  round  her  neck  and 
patted  her  and  petted  her.  "How  lucky  about  the 
equinoctial !  and  this  year  I  believe  it  will  blow  much 
longer  than  usual.  I  am  quite  sure  I  would  not  trust  it 
before  the  next  equinoctial  comes.  Eachel,  you  shall 


THE    DEMANDS   OF  SOCIETY.  49 

write  her  a  pretty  note.  You  shall  say  that  the  queer 
old  lady  in  whose  house  you  are  is  under  certain  circum- 
stances greatly  in  danger  of  neuralgia  complicated  by 
rheumatism  and  coupled  by  constitutional  predisposi- 
tion. Say  that  the  person  in  whose  opinion  she  has  most 
confidence,  and  you,  recommend  decidedly  that  in  the 
present  contingency  she  shall  not  risk  the  chances  of  a 
change  of  a  personal  attendant,  and  that  justly  weighing 
this  unbiassed  advice  she  is  sure,  and  you  believe,  that  it 
is  your  duty  as  now  advised  to  remain  in  Hitchin,  unless 
your  aunt  sees  super — superanything  considerations  which 
may  outweigh  these  conclusions. 

"  Say  something  like  that,  child.  Write  large,  so  as 
to  cover  four  pages  of  paper.  If  there  is  any  trouble 
about  the  long  words,  take  Worcester's  Dictionary. 
One  word  is  about  as  good  as  another,  if  it  is  only 
long  enough.  Tims  shall  we  pay  fit  homage  to  the 
Fetich." 

Then,  seeing  that  •Rachel  was  really  troubled,  "  Dear 
child,  do  not  cry  ;  your  other  aunt  is  right.  It  is  non- 
sense to  determine  anything.  Only  God  determines 
anything,  and  sometimes  I  think  He  does  not  care  much 
about  time.  If  you  can  see  three  months  ahead  in  life 
you  need  never  bother  yourself  to  look  further. 

"  Now  of  one  thing  we  are  sure — I  love  you  and  you 
love  me." 

"  Yes,  ma'am,"  said  the  grateful  Rachel,  with  her 
eyes  full  of  tears. 

"  There,  then,  is  one  bit  of  Eternity.  For  love  is 
eternal. 

"  Of  that  bit  of  eternity  we  take  one  little  sliver,  and 
we  say,  l  This  is  certain,  that  Rachel  lives  with  Aunt 
Lois  till,  because  they  love  each  other,  it  shall  be  better 
for  one  of  them  to  go  away.'"" 


50  THE   FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

And  in  fact  a  letter  was  written  to  Aunt  Ann,  and  re- 
written. It  was  altered  and  copied,  and  altered  again. 

But,  substantially  on  the  lines  of  Aunt  Lois's  original 
sketch,  it  went  to  England,  and  answered  every  available 
purpose. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

GAYETY    AND    CHARITY. 

"  A  LITTLE  pebble  dropped  into  a  stream 

Sends  lovely  widening  circles  out,  and  then 
Far  upward,  till  the  water  and  the  air 

Are  full  of  life  beyond  our  thought  and  ken." 

J/Iss  6.  Dug  an. 

MEANWHILE  Aunt  Lois  sent  for  Miss  Blaney,  the 
dressmaker,  and  Miss  Blaney  took  some  requisite 
measures  of  Rachel' s  form  and  figure.  A  sufficient 
order  was  given  to  Miss  Blaney  to  keep  her  busy  for  a 
month  and  to  satisfy  the  Hitchin  respect  for  home  in- 
dustries. For  the  rest  a  liberal  order  was  sent  to  Hovey, 
in  Boston,  and  so  in  a  few  weeks'  time  Rachel  was  as 
nicely  dressed  as  Aunt  LoiVs  daughter  would  have  been 
dressed  ;  and  in  fact  she  assumed  in  the  household 
much  the  same  place  as  a  niece  or  granddaughter  of  her 
age  might  have  done. 

So  soon  as  the  finery  was  in  proper  order  Mrs.  Win- 
chell  selected  the  occasion  for  its  first  use. 

"  Rachel,  my  child,"  she  said,  "  2s ahum  is  off  duty. 
He  has  begged  leave  to  go  to  Great  Falls  to  see  his 
grandmother  buried,  I  believe,  or  her  grandson  married. 
Indeed,  I  do  not  know  which.  The  family  at  Great 
Falls  is  past  finding  out.  Seven  grandmothers  have  died 
there  since  Nahum  lived  with  me,  I  am  sure  ;  but  I  ask 
no  questions. 


f>2  THE    FORTUNES    OF    K  AC  II  EL. 

"  Nahum  has  gone  to  Great  Falls.  So  yon  must  step 
to  the  front.  . 

"  Do  not  be  frightened.  There  is  no  wood  to  cut  and 
no  pig  to  kill.  But  you  will  have  to  drive  me  over  to 
Mrs.  Barnard's  to  the  Sewing  Circle." 

Rachel  asked  nothing  better.  Many  of  the  other  girls 
of  their  region  were  going.  The  Sewing  Circle  was 
most  democratic  in  its  range,  and  swept  in  all  social  con- 
ditions, so  people  only  could  and  would  sew  for  the  poor, 
and  it  was  most  indifferent  as  to  ages.  Old  Madam 
Fuller  always  went  in  fine  weather,  and  she  remembered 
the  first  "  progress"  of  Washington,  who  on  that  occasion 
had  kissed  his  hand  to  her  personally.  On  the  other 
hand,  they  were  glad  to  get  in  as  many  young  girls  as 
they  could,  if  it  were  only  to  have  them  carry  round  the 
tea  and  coffee  and  bread -and  butter.  Besides,  it  "  in- 
terested them"  early  in  life.  Such  was  the  excuse,  and 
the  people  of  Hitchin  were  right.  [Nothing  is  better  for 
boy  or  girl  than  to  be  counted  into  the  working  force  of 
the  world  early. 

So  when  Nahum  left  for  the  funeral  of  his  grand- 
mother he  left  Kate,  the  mare,  harnessed  in  her  stall, 
and  all  that  Rachel  and  Hitty  had  to  do  in  the  afternoon 
was  to  lead  her  out  and  put  her  into  Mrs.  Winchell's 
own  buggy,  a  feat  for  which  they  were  quite  prepared. 
Rachel  was  quite  clear  about  her  skill  in  driving. 

"When  Nahum  comes  home  from  the  funeral, 
Rachel,"  said  the  old  lady,  so  soon  as  they  were  well 
adjusted,  "  he  shall  teach  you  the  whole  art  and  mystery 
of  harnessing.  The  wonder  is  how  they  put  on  the 
collar,  and  the  difficulty  is  to  slip  the  bit  into  a  hollow 
channel  there  is  among  their  teeth.  The  miracle  is,  my 
dear  Rachel— one  of  the  marvellous  adaptations  of 
nature,  as  Parson  Caner  would  call  it— that  horses  have 


GAYETY    AND    C11A1UTY.  53 

not  the  slightest  carnivorous  disposition.  If  they  had, 
they  would  bite  off  the  thumbs  of  the  men  who  try  to 
bit  them  every  day,  and  with  that  savory  morsel  would 
go  gambolling  in  the  paddock.  Curious,  that  similarity 
between  the  words  *  to  bite '  and  '  to  bit. '  N"ote  that, 
Eachel,  and  ask  Miss  Gate  to  look  in  Marsh's  Wedgwood 
about  it.  For  the  present,  remember  that  the  inde- 
pendence of  woman  consists  in  three  things  : 

"  First,  she  must  be  able  to  harness  her  own  horse. 
If  she  can,  all  the  men  may  go  to  their  grandmothers' 
funerals. 

"  Second,  she  must  have  an  india-rubber  cloak  which 
will  go  down  to  her  heels. 

"  Third,  she  must  have  india-rubber  boots  which  shall 
go  up  to  her  knees. 

"  If  she  have  these,  why,  she  can  go  to  her  own  grand- 
father's funeral,  even  if  it  rains  cats  and  dogs,  as  at 
funerals  I  think  it  is  apt  to  do." 

Mrs.  Barnard  received  the  visitors  most  cordially  on 
the  hospitable  Greek  portico  which  screened  the  front  of 
her  house,  which  was  the  grandest  house  in  the  West 
Tillage,  as  Mrs.  Winchell's  was  perhaps  the  grandest 
near  the  East.  And  a  pretty  party  was  that  which  now 
went  forward.  The  whole  house  was  flung  open  to  the 
army  of  charity  skirmishers.  They  formed  by  threes  or 
by  foui*s,  in  squads  of  tens  or  twenty,  if  need  were,  or 
even  in  companies,  well  disciplined,  which  could  have 
displayed  a  company  front  of  fifty  had  there  been  any 
need.  They  were  scattered  in  this  summer  house,  and 
on  that  piazza,  in  the  great  parlor,  or  the  summer  par- 
lor, or  the  library,  or  the  breakfast-room,  as  fancy  or  ac- 
cident directed,  and  everybody  took  the  skirmisher's 
privilege  of  changing  the  point  of  attack  against  the  un- 


54  THE   FOKTUXES   OF    RACHEL. 

seen  enemy  —  nay,  of  changing  the  weapon  employed 
whenever  she  chose. 

The  unseen  enemy  was  the  devil,  whom  the  Sewing 
Circle  of  Hitchin  had  bravely  undertaken  to  overthrow 
by  any  means  in  its  power.  And  truly,  to  a  person  not 
a  theologian,  it  would  have  seemed  that  on  this  occasion 
the  society  had  succeed  3d,  and  that  he  had  betaken  him- 
self to  his  "  cressets  of  burning  naphtha."  Let  us  hope 
that  the  Patent  Law  restricts  him  from  using  General 
Eosecrans's  magnificent  invention  of  burning  naphtha 
with  the  strong  draught  of  glass  tubes,  and  that  he  and 
his  defeated  army  are  compelled  to  use  their  naphtha 
smoking  as  well  as  blazing.  Certainly,  in  the  garden  of 
Mrs.  Barnard's,  and  in  her  airy  parlors,  his  appearance 
was  most  subtly  concealed,  if  he  were  there  at  all. 

The  one  difficulty  of  the  managers  of  the  Sewing 
Society  was  to  know  to  what  end  their  labors,  if  those 
were  labors  which  gave  all  pleasure  and  which  fatigued  no 
one,  should  be  directed.  And  on  this  occasion,  when 
the  setting  of  a  luxurious  supper  had  called  into  the 
house  all  stragglers,  and  the  larger  part  of  the  company, 
including  all  who  were  of  authority,  had  assembled  in 
Mrs.  Barnard's  immense  summer  parlor,  the  question 
was  brought  up  in  form  what  object  of  philanthropy 
should  be  selected  for  the  next  three  months.  The 
minister's  wife,  a  jolly  little  woman,  presided,  or  was 
said  to  preside.  But  in  fact  her  hands  were  upheld,  as 
her  husband  would  have  said,  by  Mrs.  Barnard  on  the 
one  side  and  Mrs.  Winchell  on  the  other.  And  the  pro- 
ceedings, though  clogged  a  good  deal  by  talk  of  "  laying 
on  the  table,"  and  "  amending,"  and  "  accepting"  this 
and  that  report  of  this  or  that  committee,  bore  no  close 
resemblance  to  those  of  any  constitutional  legislature. 


GAYETY   AND    CHARITY.  55 

None  the  less,  however,  did  they  attain  their  end,  and 
that  very  directly. 

There  was  nobody  who  could  be  called  a  subject  for 
charity  in  the  town  except  Elder  Faunce,  so  called,  and 
his  wife,  who  had  many  years  ago  expressed  their  pref- 
erence to  reside  in  the  poorhouse,  an  old  inn  on  the 
ISTorth  Road  which  the  town  haft-  bought  when  staging 
died  out,  and  which  was,  in  fact,  kept  by  Elder  Faunce's 
nephew.  He  received  it  from  the  town  with  the  under- 
standing that  he  was  to  make  what  he  could  off  the  farm, 
and  the  town  paid  him  two  hundred  dollars  a  year  for 
living  in  such  an  unpromising  place.  He  would  other- 
wise have  been  raising  wheat  in  Illinois.  A  committee 
of  the  ladies  visited  this  town  farm  every  second  Sunday 
and  conducted  religious  service  there,  and  on  Fast  Day 
and  Thanksgiving  another  committee  revised  the  ward- 
robe of  the  Elder  and  his  wife.  The  Elder  was  called 
"Elder"  not  from  any  ecclesiastical  function  which  he 
had  ever  exercised,  but  because  he  was  in  fact  the  oldest 
man  in  the  town,  having  been  named  Rochambeau 
Faunce  in  honor  of  the  surrender  at  Yorktown,  the  week 
after  the  ne\vs  of  that  event  arrived  in  Hitchin.  For  the 
rest,  at  Thanksgiving  time  a  small  canister  of  tea  gener- 
ally appeared  at  old  Miss  Fosdick's  by  express,  and  no- 
body knew  where  it  came  from.  And  sometimes  in  a 
similar  way  a  piece  of  shirting  appeared  at  the  AVidow 
Millmore's.  But  nobody  said  that  these  things  were 
connected  with  the  item,  "  Buttons,  pins,  needles,  and 
other  sundries,"  in  the  annual  report  of  Miss  Willard, 
the  treasurer  of  the  Sewing  Society. 

It  would  not  have  been  agreeable  either  to  the  Widow 
Millmore  or  to  Miss  Fosdick,  both  of  whom  would  be 
present  among  the  co-operative  circle  in  the  annual 
meeting,  to  hear  the  precise  cost  of  the  tea  or  of  the 


56  THE    FORTUNES   OF    KACHEL. 

shirting.  In  fact,  each  of  ,tlies*e  ladies  supposed  that 
these  articles  came  from  old  admirers  who  had  risen  to 
the  topmost  round  of  the  ladder  of  success  in  Boston. 

The  poor  of  the  town,  such  as  they  were,  having  been 
thus  disposed  of,  the  Sewing  Circle  had  other  worlds  to 
conquer.  On  this  occasion  a  letter  was  read  from  a 
church  in  Elba,  in  Washington  Territory,  which  was 
about  to  hold  a  fair  for  the  purchase  of  a  carpet,  and 
which  asked  the  assistance  of  the  "  friends  in  Hitchin." 
,But  this  letter  only  awakened  laughter  in  the  company. 
The  truth  was  that  it  had  no  voucher,  and  had  only 
been  written  because  the  Elba  people  had  seen  in  the 
Independent  that  Hitchin  had  helped  a  "  struggling 
church"  in  Colorado.  The  next  appeal  had  been  directed 
to  that  jolly,  good-natured  Miss  Sharpe,  who  was  sitting 
and  knitting  in  the  bow-window. 

"  Will  you  read  the  letter  yourself,  Miss  Sharpe  ?" 
."  Oh,  no,  Miss  Willard — yon  read  so  well." 

So  Miss  Willard,  in  good  academical  style,  declaimed 
the  letter.  Miss  Sharpe  said  she  had  not  seen  the  writer 
since  they  were  all  at  school  together  at  K^arsarge,  but 
that  she  liked  her  then,  and  thought  she  was  good  and 
genuine.  The  letter  said  that  by  a  strange  fortune  of 
war  or  of  peace  the  writer  had  been  left,  on  the  close  of 
hostilities,  literally  the  owner  of  a  plantation  on  an  isknd 
off  the  coast  of  North  Carolina.  The  estate  had  first 
been  confiscated,  then  the  owner  and  his  sons  had  been 
killed  in  war,  and  the  Missionary  Society  which  sup- 
ported her  had  bought  the  title  from  the  heir-at-law. 
The  Missionary  Society  had  blown  up,  bnt  the  writer  was 
there  with  a  great  school  of  boys  and  girls  of  all  colors, 
whose  old  industries,  such  as  they  were,  were  broken 
up  by  the  war  and  the  peace,  and  to  whom,  after  four  or 
live  years  of  confusion,  she  was  trying  to  teach  the  arts 


GAYETY    AND    CliAlilTV.  5? 

of  peace.  She  was  teaching  the  girls  how  to  knit  and 
the  long-legged  boys  .how  to  dredge  for  oysters. 

"  I  do  not  pretend  that  I  shall  give  to  them  the  cloth- 
ing you  may  choose  to  send  me.  1  shall  sell  it  to  them,  or 
give  it  to  them  in  payment  for  their  work.  Bat  their 
work  will,  in  its  way,  build  up  Jerusalem." 

This  sort  of  work  pleased  the  maids  and  matrons  of 
Ilitchin.  And  to  this  and  similar  enterprises  they  gave 
their  approval,  not  by  any  formal  vote,  but  by  a  sort 
of  buzz  of  conversation  which,  as  the  Friends  would  say, 
intimated  distinctly  enough  what  was  "  the  sense  of  the 
meeting. " 

It  was  when  the  business  meeting,  so  called,  was  well 
over,  when  the  brothers,  and  husbands,  and  fathers,  and 
sons,  and  possibly  the  "  pretenders  "  and  "  lovers"  of  the 
ladies  present  began  to  come  in,  and  to  lounge  round 
among  the  workwomen,  that,  with  them,  Satan  entered 
also. 

At  least  it  was  in  an  incident  which  then  transpired 
that  Eachel  saw  the  only  flash  of  his  spear  which  she 
did  see  that -evening. 

She  was  sitting  with  Ruth  Cordis  by  Miss  Willard, 
the  treasurer,  a  somewhat  dried-up,  not  to  say  starched 
and  insular  person,  a  "  considerably  old-looking  young 
lady."  Mr.  Thomas  Poore  came  up,  and  with  his  cup 
of  coffee  took  a  seat  by  them. 

"  Miss  Willard,  they  tell  me  you  arc  the  treasurer," 
he  said. 

"  Yes,  I  have  that  honor,"  said  the  Argus  of  the 
treasury,  laughing. 

"  Have  you  much  difficulty  in  your  investments  ?" 

"  None  at  all,"  said  she.  "  WG  lend  to  the  Lord,  and 
the  dividends  are  enormous." 

"  That  encourages  me,"  he  said.      "  1  wab  lured  on 


58  THE   FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

to-day,  by  my  good  nature,  in  Boston,  to  make  a  pur- 
chase of  stock.  Now  it  has  occurred  to  me  that  it  is 
much  more  in  your  line  than  in  mine,  and  1  "will  unload, 
as  the  Wall  Street  men  say — I  will  present  it  all  to  the 
Sewing  Society. " 

Miss  Willard  supposed  that  this  was  a  joke,  as  indeed 
it  was,  and  did  not  show  any  undue  eagerness  or  grati- 
tude. 

Rachel  was  astonished  at  her  indifference  indeed, 
which  in  any  other  part  of  the  world  would  have  proved 
underbreeding.  But  Rachel  did  not  know  New  England. 

"  Pray,  what  will  you  give  us  ?"  said  Miss  Willard,  as 
if  the  society  received  a  dozen  gold  nuggets  at  every 
meeting. 

"  I  shall  give  you  what  Dr.  Johnson  called  '  the 
potentiality  of  untold  wealth.'  Williams,  who  is  an  old 
classmate  of  mine,  '  stuck  me  '  to-day  with  three  shares 
of  a  corporation  of  which  he  is  president. 

"  It;  is  the  New  England  Stocking-Loom  corporation, 
and  has  the  exclusive  right  for  New  England  to  make 
and  sell  the  new  stocking-loom  which  is  to  put  an  end 
to  all  such  industries  as  these  young  ladies  are  now  pur- 
suing. As  I  say,  this  is  much  more  in  your  line  than  it 
is  in  mine.  The  shares  cost  me  two  dollars  and  a  half 
apiece,  and  I  will  present  all  three  to  the  Sewing 
Society." 

The  young  man  thought  he  had  done  a  good-natured 
thing.  He  did  not  think  he  had  done  a  rude  thing. 

But  at  this  moment  Satan  entered  Miss  Willard.  No 
lesser  power  could  have  inspired  her  rude  reply  : 

"  Oh,  I  see.  Your  friend  was  afraid  of  his  stock,  and 
put  it  on  you  ;  and  you  are  afraid.  '  Individual  liability, ' 
you  gentlemen  call  it,  do  you  not  ?  and  you  want  to  put 
it  on  our  broad  shoulders." 


GAYETY   AND   CHARITY.  59 

Rachel  did  not  understand  all  the  ineffable  rudeness  of 
this  speech,  but  she  did  know  that  it  was  nide.  Ruth 
Cordis  blushed  crimson,  she  was  so  angry. 

But  Mr.  Poore  showed  no  mark  of  anger.  Perhaps 
he  knew  Miss  Willard  too  well.  He  only  laughed. 

"  What,  not  accept  my  humble  flower?"  he  said. 
"  Then  I  will  divide  my  bouquet  into  three.  Miss  Ruth, 
will  you  accept  a  share  in  the  Stocking  Loom  ?  You  do 
not  know  how  many  millions  of  children  in  Timbuctoo 
it  will  fit  put  with  good  red  yarn  stockings  before  it  eats 
its  breakfast.  Indeed,  I  believe  it  runs  all  night  if 
the  water-wheel  runs,  and  never  eats  any  breakfast  at 
all." 

"  Of  course  I  will,  Mr.  Poore,  and  I  will  thank  you 
to  boot.  I  do  not  look  a  gift  stocking-loom  in  the 
mouth. " 

Satan  had  by  this  time  entered  Miss  Cordis,  and  this 
was  her  side  hit  at  Miss  Willard. 

"  And  will  this  young  lady  take  one  share?"  asked 
Mr.  Poore. 

Rachel  was  afraid.  She  did  not  want  to  offend  any- 
body. She  did  not  want  to  accept  presents  from 
strangers  ;  but  clearly  this  was  half  nonsense  and  was  all 
a  trifle,  so  she  blushed  very  prettily,  and  thanked  Mr. 
Poore,  and  took  the  share. 

"  And  I  will  keep  the  third,"  said  he,  "  and  when  wo 
meet  at  Tiffany's  to  invest  our  profits  in  diamonds,  we 
will  send  a  little  brooch  to  Miss  Willard  here  to.make 
her  repent  that  she  rejected  our  offer.  I  will  send  you 
the  certificates  to-morrow,"  he  said,  and  so  finished  his 
coffee  and  took  the  cup  back  to  Mrs.  Barnard. 

Miss  Willard  was  wondering  whether  she  had  acted 
like  a  fool. 

Mr.  Poore  was  not  wondering  at  all  on  that  matter. 


60  THE   FORTUXES    OF   RACHEL. 

As  soon  as  Rachel  was  in  the  \vagon  with  Aunt  Lois 
she  told  her  story,  and  asked  what  she  should  have  done. 

The  old  lady  was  amused  and  indignant  at  the  right 
points.  . 

"  You  did  quite  right,  my  dear. 

"  In  such  a  thing  as  this,  if  you  have  a  set  of  right 
principles  at  bottom,  you  cannot  go  far  wrong. 

"  That  Miss  Willard  is  a  fool. 

"  If  he  sends  you  the  certificate,  well  ;  it  is  not  worth 
the  postage-stamp  on  his  letter. 

"  If  he  forgets  all  about  it,  well,  too. 

"  You  did  perfectly  right,  Rachel.  I  am  glad  you 
like  Ruth  Cordis.  She  is  a  pet  of  mine." 

Mr.  Poore  did  not  forget  all  about  it.  Next  morning 
the  elegantly  engraved  certificate  of  stock  came,  and  had 
been  properly  transferred,  the  indorsement  said,  to  Miss 
Rachel  Finley. 

"  Put  it  in  the  bottom  of  the  little  desk,"  said  Aunt 
Lois.  "  It  will  be  a  good  thing  to  remember  Mrs. 
Barnard  by." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ANOTHER    NEW    WORLD. 

"  In  each  \re  sat,  \ve  heard  the  grave  professor." 

Princess. 

BUT  it  is  not  for  this  little  book  to  attempt  to  describe 
in  such  detail  the  fortunes  of  Ilitehin,  its  gossip  or  its 
work,  its  ups  or  its  downs,  during  the  years  of  Rachel's 
first  stay  there.  They  were  years  quite  as  eventful  as 
any  which  had  passed  in  its  history  in  the  hundred  and 
fifty  years  since  the  two  Xorcross  brothers,  in  their 
lumber-prospecting,  had  lighted  on  the  valley,  had  built 
two  log-cabins  there,  and  had  brought  to  them  their 
wives  and  their  children.  Quite  as  eventful  were  these 
years,  and  not  more  so. 

In  three  such  years,  eventful  or  uneventful  according 
to  the  standard  by  which  one  measures  events,  Rachel 
lived  with  Aunt  Lois,  as  she  began.  A  healthy,  well- 
balanced  life  it  was,  with  enough  of  sensation  and  not  too 
much,  enough  of  duty  and  not  too  much,  enough  of  play 
and  not  too  much.  In  that  house  there  were  plenty  of 
books  and  not  too  many,  there  were  enough  people  and 
not  too  many.  Half  the  year,  or  about  half  the  year, 
Rachel  went  to  school.  Mrs.  Winchell  would  as  soon 
have  fired  a  pistol-ball  through  her  head  as  to  send  her 
to  school  for  more  than  six  months  in  the  year  at  her 
age  ;  and,  as  it  happened,  the  good  sense  of  the  average 
Xe\v  Hampshire  custom  had  drifted  into  that  arrange- 


02  THE  roiiiTXES  OF  RACHEL. 

ment.  There  was  a  three-months  school  in  winter  and 
a  three-months  school  in  summer.  At  neither  was  the 
pace  very  fast  nor  the  strain  or  drain  on  life  very  ex- 
hausting. When  time  came  Rachel  was  transferred  from 
the  district  school,  which  has  been  described,  to  the  High 
School,  which  for  all  scholars  over  the  age  of  fifteen  was 
kept  in  "  the  Centre." 

Mrs.  "Winchell  was  perfectly  indifferent  to  the  school 
requisitions  of  attendance,  except  that  of  promptness 
when  the  day's  work  began.  "  You  must  keep  your 
appointments,  Rachel.  That  young  woman  is  there  at 
nine  to  teach  you.  You  must  be  there  at  nine  to  be 
taught,  if  you  are  there  at  all.  That  is  the  contract." 
But  it  was  not  in  the  contract  that  Rachel  should  go  if 
Mrs.  Winchell  thought  there  was  anything  better  for 
her. 

"  That  is  for  me  to  say,  my  dear,  not  for  them.  I 
pay  my  taxes,  and  I  pay  them  willingly.  I  should  pay 
them  if  I  had  no  chick  nor  child,  and  I  should  pay  them 
willingly.  But  I  have  never  contracted  that  you  should 
be  there  every  day." 

So,  if  there  were  a  good  concert  troupe  in  Boston 
Mrs.  Winchell  would  pack  up,  at  an  hour's  notice  after  she 
had  read  the  announcement  in  the  newspaper,  and  take 
Rachel  with  her  for  a  week  to  the  Adams  House,  that 
they  might  go  to  the  entertainment. 

"  I  am  sorry  for  the  others,  my  dear  ;  I  should  be  glad 
if  I  could  take  them  all.  But  that  I  cannot  do.  As  it 
is,  I  do  what  I  can,  and  Miss  What's-her-name  must  not 
expect  that  she  is  to  be  your  only  teacher.  There  is  a 
great  deal  to  be  learned  at  places  of  amusement,  if  you 
only  go  to  work  the  right  way." 

Nor  was  the  old  lady  very  particular  as  to  her  choice 
of  the  books  which  she  made  Rachel  read  aloud  to  her. 


AXOTHKU    XEW    WORLD.  C3 

There  was  nothing  she  did  not  dip  into.  "  I  never  said 
I  understood  it,  my  dear,  and  I  never  pretended  to. 
But  I  did  not  mean  that  anybody  else  should  select  my 
reading  for  me."  This  was  when  she  had  sent  down 
for  somebody's  treatise  on  the  correlation  of  forces, 
which  proved  to  be  a  little  beyond  her  comprehension, 
or  Rachel's. 

"  We  know  now,  my  dear  child,  that  that  is  not 
in  our  line.  How  should  we  know,  had  we  never 
tried?" 

And  if  any  one  else  pleaded  with  her  in  poor  Rachel's 
behalf,  and  said  it  was  impossible  that  a  girl  of  that  age 
could  be  interested  in  Tylor's  "  Anthropology  :" 

"  My  dear,  I  never  said  she  should  be  interested. 
The  good  God  never  said  she  should  be  interested.  As 
Mr.  Carlyle  has  it,  there  is  no  act  of  Parliament  that  she 
should  be  interested.  She  will  have,  before  she  is 
done,  to  do  a  great  many  things  that  are  not  interesting, 
and  to  see  a  great  many  uninteresting  people.  Depend 
upon  it,  Sarah,  she  will  pull  through  such  experiences 
the  better  if  she  has  a  few  doses  of  my  good  tonic  worm- 
wood now.  Tylor's  '  Anthropology '  is  her  worm- 
wood." 

For  Rachel  herself,  she  would  have  said  that  her  life 
was  thoroughly  happy.  She  was  no  fool,  and  she  had, 
either  by  inheritance  or  by  contagion  from  Mrs.  "Win- 
chell,  sense  enough  to  make  herself  mistress  of  circum- 
stances, and  she  had  taken  on,  before  she  knew  it,  the 
habit  of  laughing  at  people  who  want  to  live  in  a  world 
of  sugar-candy. 

But  even  Aunt  Lois's  optimism  did  not  think  this 
could  last  forever. 

They  had  been  spending  the  last  weeks  of  August  and 
the  first  of  September  at  Waterville,  to  sensible  people 


04  THE   PORTUXES    OF   RACHEL. 

one  of  the  pleasantest  tarrying-places  in  the  White 
Mountains.  The  day  after  their  return,  when  the 
trunks  were  all  unpacked,  and  they  were  both  trying  to 
take  on  home  habits  again,  Aunt  Lois  said  to  Rachel  : 

"  Come  here,  my  child  ;  there,  sit  just  there. 

"  Rachel,  Hitchin  is  a  good  place,  but,  as  Mr.  Lowell 
says  of  Judee,  they  don't  know  everything,  not  even  in 
Hitchin." 

"  You  do,  dear  Aunt  Lois,  if  the  rest  of  them  do  not, 
and  you  can  tell  me." 

"  That  is  a  very  good  way,"  said  the  old  lady,  "  and 
we  have  run  on  very  happily  on  that  principle.  You 
know  I  am  proud  of  yon,  and  well  I  may  be. 

"  But  this  will  not  do  forever.  There  are  some 
things  to  be  gained  among  more  people— some  things 
which  you  will  never  get  if  you  stay  always  tied  to  my 
apron. 

"  Rachel,  how  should  you  like  to  go  to  the  Mount 
Ivearsarge  Seminary  ?" 

"I  should  not  like  it  at  all,"  said  Rachel  bluntly, 
"  and  I  do  not  think  I  had  better  go." 

This  was  an  unpromising  beginning.  But  all  the  same 
to  the  Mount  Kearsarge  Seminary  Rachel  went.  Her 
affectionate  assurances  that  she  was  perfectly  satisfied 
with  the  Hitchin  High  School  went  for  nothing.  A 
subtle  plan  to  postpone  the  evil  day  for  a  year  went  for 
less.  Aunt  Lois  had  made  up  her  mind  that  it  was  well 
for  the  girl  to  be  flung  upon  the  world  on  her  own  re- 
sources. She  did  not  say  so  to  Rachel,  but  this  furnished 
her  real  motive  for  a  separation  which  cost  her  a  great 
deal. 

"  Bring  me  that  book  you  were  reading  to  me  at 
Water ville,"  she  said. 

"  Which  book,  Aunt  Lois  ?" 


ANOTHER    NEW    WORLD.  65 

Mr.  "Wliat's-his-name's.  You  know  —  the 
book  with  a  purple  cover."  This  was  an  old  joke  be- 
tween them,  and  the  book  appeared. 

"  There,  Rachel,  I  thought  of  you  when  you  were 
reading.  For  I  had  this  on  my  mind  all  the  time  I  was 
there.  Changing  the  things  which  are  to  be  changed,  as 
Parson  Caner  says — here  is  the  passage  : 

"  I  do  not  suppose  that  this  is  the  best  school  in  the 
world  unless  you  make  it  so.  But  I  do  suppose  you  can 
make  it  so.  If  you  and  I  went  whining  about,  looking 
for  the  best  school  in  the  world,  I  should  die,  and  you 
would  lose  your  voice  with  whining,  and  we  should  not 
find  one  after  all.  This,  as  it  happens,  is  what  the  pub- 
lic provides  for  us." 

And  so,  with  short  shrift  poor  Rachel  was  swung  off  to 
what  seemed  to  her  almost  like  a  small  boat  fleeing  from 
shipwreck.  But  Aunt  Lois  broke  the  fall.  She  went 
part  way  with  her.  They  went  to  Boston  to  make  some 
last  purchases,  which  both  of  them  supposed  to  be  neces- 
sary, and  then  on  Monday  morning  Aunt  Lois  accom- 
panied the  girl  to  the  Albany  station  and  left  her  in  the 
train  for  the  Connecticut  River. 

It  was  more  than  three  years  since  Rachel  first  landed 
in  Boston,  and  in  all  that  time  no  one  of  the  passengers 
in  the  Baikal  had  ever  been  heard  from,  excepting  those 
who  landed  with  her  on  that  summer  morning.  Of 
these  John  "\Yolffwas  the  only  one  Rachel  had  ever  seen. 
Captain  Jucker  had  written  a  short  letter,  with  some 
difficulty,  in  answer  to  a  short  letter  also  written  with 
difficulty  by  Rachel.  Aunt  Lois  had  pronounced  that  a 
correspondence  need  not  be  maintained,  to  which  neither 
party  showed  much  inclination.  "  Fetich- !"  she  said. 
John  AVolff  had  obtained  Rachel's  address  from  Miss 
Child,  and  from  his  home  in  Iowa  had  written.  The 


66  THE   FORTUNES    OF   RACHEL. 

letter  had  been  accompanied  by  a  cordial  note  from  his 
mother,  confirming  the  invitation  her  son  had  given,  that 
Rachel  should  visit  them  if  she  ever  went  to  the  West. 

To  this  letter  Aunt  Lois  dictated  the  answer. 

This  summer  they  had  met  John  Wolff.  He  was 
trout-fishing  in  the  White  Mountains,  and  he  made  his 
home  at  Greeley's,  where  they  were  staying.  Of  course 
the  sight  of  him  brought  back  the  old  memories.  But 
Rachel  would  not  brood,  and  if  she  had  wished  to  Aunt 
Lois  would  not  let  her.  Indeed,  from  temper  and  from 
duty,  she  kept  her  hands  so  full  that  her  heart  was  not 
apt  to  be  sad.  He  had  met  her  first  on  the  hotel  piazza, 
lie  turned*suddenly  and  said,  "  Surely  it  is  Miss  Rachel 
Finley  ?" 

"  Surely  it  is,"  said  Rachel,  not  wholly  sadly,  partly 
laughing  indeed,  though  the  sight  of  him  had  made  her 
sad.  "  I  ought  to  have  spoken  to  you,  and  in  a  minute 
more  I  would  ;  I  was  curious,  though,  to  see  if  you 
would  know  me." 

"  You  are  very  much  changed.   You  are  taller,  and — " 

If  he  had  dared  he  would  have  said,  "  You  are  a 
woman  now,  and  you  were  a  girl  then." 

"Yes,"  said  Rachel  hastily,  "I  am  very  much 
changed.  I  am  more  changed  than  you  are.  For  you 
are  not  changed  at  all,  Mr.  \Arolff.  I  knew  you  in  a 
moment,  but  I  had  no  idea  that  you  were  here." 

And  by  this  time  her  aunt  had  moved  her  chair  far 
enough  on  the  seat  to  make  room  for  him  between  them. 
lie  accepted  the  opportunity.  Rachel  presented  him 
to  her  friends,  and  went  on  : 

"  You  are  the  first — you  are  the  only  one — of of— 

our  sea-friends  I  have  ever  seen — or — "  and  this  she  said 
as  bravely  as  she  could,  though  the  tears  were  streaming 
down  her  face — "  or  ever  shall  see — in  this  world." 


ANOTHER    NEW    WOULD.  07 

"  How  strange  it  is  !"  he  said.  "  How  strange  it  is  ! 
How  strange  it  all  was  !  I  would  not  give  up  for 
months.  I  did  not  give  up  for  months.  It  would  be 
fair  to  say  that  I  do  not  give  up  now,  Miss  Finley. " 

"  No,"  said  Rachel  sadly,  "  you  must  not  say  that  to 
me.  I  have  given  up.  It  is  better  that  I  should.  As  our 
second  rule  says,  1  had  better  look  forward  to  meeting 
them  than  to  look  back.  I  know  that  for  this  world  all 
is  over.  But,  of  course,  I  never  forget.  1  never  go  to 
bed  at  night  but  I  think  of  that  last  night  on  the  ship, 
or  the  night  in  the  boat,  and  those  strange  nights  in  the 
kind  skipper's  stateroom." 

And  so  the  ice  had  been  broken,  and  they  talked  for  half 
an  hour  as  if  they  had  been  together  every  day  for  these 
five  years.  She  told  him  and  he  told  her  of  the  gradual 
fading  out  of  hope.  But  in  his  case  there  had  been  no 
such  personal  agony  as  in  hers.  She  told  him,  without 
detail,  of  Ilitchm  and  her  home  there — that,  in  spite  of 
herself  and  without  meaning  to,  she  had  grown  to  be  a 
New  Hampshire  girl.  "  You  would  not  know  me  from 
the  original,  Mr.  Wolff.  1  'ride  in  a  boat,'  I  could 
'teach  a  school,'  1  have  'good  times,'  and  1  never  say 
*  nice '  or  '  nasty. '  ' 

As  Rachel  bade  Mrs.  Winchell  good-by  she  certainly 
felt  homesick,  as  she  settled  herself  in  the  car  and  as  the 
train  passed  out  from  the  station.  From  this  moment 
must  begin  the  learning  of  new  faces  and  new  names, 
without  one  chance  of  meeting  a  person  even  as  familiar 
as  the  driver  of  the  omnibus.  But  there  was  nothing  to 
cry  for,  and  she  did  not  cry.  She  made  a  vigorous  effort 
to  interest  herself  in  the  panorama  which  flew  by,  and 
then,  when  the  steam  from  the  engine  cut  her  off  from 
this  indulgence,  she  began  a  systematic  study  of  her 
fellow-passenger* 


GS  THE    FORTUNES   OF    liACHEL. 

Cattle  dealers  returning  from  market  had  not  much 
interest  for  her,  nor  "  drummers"  or  commercial  travel- 
lers, had  she  known  enough  of  the  business  of  the  coun- 
try even  to  guess  who  they  were.  But  why  were  there 
KD  many  young  girls — girls  of  almost  her  own  age  ? 

Could  there  be  a  picnic  to  which  they  were  all  going  ? 
They  had  lunch-baskets — or  similar  provision — just  as 
she  had. 

Was  America  the  country  of  independent  young 
women,  as  she  knew  she  had  heard  her  Aunt  Ann  say 
before  she  ever  left  home  ? 

These  girls  seemed  to  know  each  other  generally. 
But  not  always.  Rachel  noticed,  with  a  certain  sym- 
pathy, that  one  who  sat  quite  alone  in  a  corner  had  been 
crying,  and  that  she  did  not  fall  in  with  the  chatter  of 
the  others,  who,  on  their  part,  had  nothing  to  do  with 
her. 

If  Rachel  did  not  know  America  she  did  know  how  to 
travel,  almost  by  instinct.  Knocked  about  as  she  had 
been,  writh  her  own  canoe  to  paddle,  as  an  admirable 
national  proverb  says,  she  was  not  fated  to  starve  to 
death  on  a  railroad  train  because  she  had  no  courier  or 
other  servant  to  take  care  of  her.  Accordingly,  when 
at  half  past  eleven  or  thereabouts,  the  train  stopped  at 
the  noisy,  reckless,  ill-ordered  junction  at  Springfield, 
Rachel  boldly  made  a  foray  from  the  car,  asking  a  fussy 
conductor  how  much  time  she  had,  and  worked  her  way 
by  instinct  to  the  refreshment-room.  A  party  of  waiters 
within  an  oval  counter  were  doing  their  best  to  attend  to 
an  army  of  passengers,  who  should  have  met  four  times  as 
many  attendants.  With  that  magic  which  compelled  one 
of  these  girls,  not  unwilling,  to  obey  her,  Rachel  produced 
her  tin  travelling  flask  provided  for  her  by  Mrs. 
Winchcll's  forethought,  instructed  the  girl  how  to  pro- 


AXOTHER    XEW    WOULD.  G9 

pare  her  coffee  and  fill  the  flask,  selected  the  form  of 
biscuit  which  she  fancied  most,  and  retired  in  triumph  to 
the  train.  As  they  resumed  their  journey  the  flask  was 
made  to  provide  a  little  tin  cup  from  its  own  cover,  and 
across  the  passage-way  Rachel  spoke  to  the  lonely  girl. 

"  Drink  a  little  of  my  warm  coffee.  I  had  no  sugar 
in  it.  Do  you  like  sugar  ?  There  is  some  in  this  paper." 

The  other  girl  raised  herself,  smiled  a  little  sadly,  and 
refused  the  coffee  at  first,  from  that  traditional  Xew  Eng- 
land habit  which  refuses  everything  one  wants,  from  a 
feeling  that  virtue  lies  in  abnegation.  But  Rachel  was 
not  rebuffed  so  easily. 

"  Indeed,  you  must  drink  some.  There  is  more  than 
both  of  us  can  drink.  If  you  were  as  old  a  traveller  as  I, 
you  would  know  that  not  to  take  food  enough  in  trav- 
•  elling  makes  headache.  And  to  take  too  much  makes 
you  stupid."  She  laughed,  and  the  other  laughed,  then 
took  off  her  glove,  dropped  a  lump  of  sugar  in  the  little 
mug,  and  drank  it  all. 

"  It  is  very  nice,  and  I  am  sure  I  thank  you.  I  have 
some  lunch  somewhere,  but  I  had  forgotten  it." 

So  she  produced  the  stores  which  that  pale,  pretty 
mother  of  hers  had  left  with  her,  while  Rachel  opened 
Aunt  Lois's  basket.  Then  the  girl  who  had  a  mother 
cleared  the  seat  opposite  her  for  the  girl  who  had  none, 
and  asked  her  to  cross  the  passage  and  join  her.  And  it 
proved  that  both  of  them  were  hungry  with  the  healthy 
appetites  of  seventeen,  and  that  in  the  bustle  of  leaving 
home  neither  of  them  had  eaten  much  breakfast.  They 
tempted  each  other  with  the  various  delicacies  of  the  two 
commissariats,  and  soon  became  at  ease  with  one  another. 

And  then  it  proved  that  Lina  Whitman  also  was  going 
to  the  Mount  Kearsarge  Seminary,  and  it  proved,  alas  ! 
that  it  was  her  first  long  absence  from  home. 


70  THE   FOHTUNES    OF    IlACIIEL. 

It  was  clear  enough  to  both  of  them  that  at  Springfield 
the  car  had  taken  on  many  more  girls,  some  of  whom 
had  been  welcomed  with  rapture  by  those  already  on 
board.  Now^ip>^-efore,  they  were  quite  sure  that  most 
if  not  all  of  thip  chattering,  merry  company  of  their  fel- 
low-travellers were  to  be  companions  for  more  than  one 
half  day  ;  and  inVtheir  new-born  confidence  in  each  other 
they  began  a  series  of  quiet  speculations  as  to  the  rest — 
how  they  should  like  the  chip-hat  girl,  whether  the 
black-eyed  girl  were  cross  or  only  pretended  to  be,  and  so 
on. 

And  thus  they  were  quite  at  Lome  with  each  other,  and 
neither  of  the  two  felt  lonely  when  the  conductor  called 
"  Schairer's  Crossings,"  and  the  whole  host  of  young 
women  rose,  and  gathered  parasols,  baskets,  parcels  of 
books,  shawl-straps,  and  luncheon  wrecks,  and  pressed 
forward  and  pressed  backward  out  of  the  car,  which  they 
left  nearly  desolate.  At  the  little  station  were  six  or 
eight  omnibuses  in  waiting,  and  jovial  drivers  and  con- 
ductors with  whom  the  "  old  girls"  seemed  good- 
naturedly  familiar.  A  tremendous  debarkation  of  lug- 
gage took  place.  But  for  this  the  school- girls  did  not 
wait.  They  only  gave  their  baggage-checks  to  the 
drivers  of  special  wagons,  and  they  themselves  clambered 
with  their  wealth  of  hand-luggage  into  the  omnibuses. 
As  soon  as  a  coach  was  filled  the  driver  cracked  his  whip 
and  was  off,  making  great  pretence  of  eagerness  that  his 
particular  convoy  should  arrive  early  at  the  school.  In 
fact  it  was  a  drive  of  four  miles,  over  a  pretty  rolling 
country  such  as  Rachel  or  Lina  had  never  seen  before. 
The  roads  were  none  too  smooth  and  were  quite  too 
dusty,  so  that  nobody  was  sorry  when  they  reached  the 
great  castle  built  of  wood  around  four  sides  of  a  square, 
in  which  these  sixty  girls,  and  four  hundred  others  as 


ANOTHER    XEW    WOULD.  71 

good  as  they,  were  to  live  together  with  no  assistance 
from  the  other  sex  for  the  next  four  months  of  their 
lives. 

A  great  company  of  jolly,  hearty  ^opng  women  of 
their  own  age  met  them  all  on  the  ste^,.  •  Whether  they 
were  other  students  who  had  arrived  before  the  travellers, 
or  whether  they  were  the  servants  of  tl.3  school,  did  not 
appear  at  first.  Eventually  it  proved  that  they  were 
both.  For,  under  the  sensible  discipline  of  this  place, 
every  girl  who  was  there  to  study  had  to  lend  a  hand  in 
the  necessary  "work  of  the  establishment,  and  was 
detailed  to  duty  from  day  to  day,  having  to  do  now 
twenty  minutes'  work,  now  seventy  minutes  every  dayy, 
according  as  the  work  assigned  were  accounted  hard  or 
easy.  Some  such  familiar  pounced  on  Lina  and  Rachel 
as  they  looked  around  them  doubtfully,  and  with  small 
ceremony  hurried  them  up  two  nights  of  stairs,  and 
through  a  long  passage-way,  till  she  came  to  an  open 
door.  She  looked  in,  seemed  satisfied,  and  said,  "  Yes, 
this  will  do  for  to-day.  Come  in  and  make  yourselves' 
comfortable.  You  two  can  stay  here  if  you  like  till 
rooms  and  room-mates  are  assigned.  That  will  be  after 
examinations. " 

"  Examinations  !"  cried  both  the  new  girls,  aghast. 

"Why,  yes,  don't  you  know?  Examinations,  you 
know,  to  see  if  you  can  stay.  But,  of  coarse,  you  will 
stay.  Everybody  stays  if  she  knows  that  twice  one  is 
two.  1  believe  that  really  the  examinations  are  for  them 
to  find  out  about  room-mates,  you  know. 

"  Anyway,  wash  yourselves  now  and  fix  up.  There 
are  no  studies  to-day.  And  by  and  by  you  will  hear  the 
bell  ring  for  supper,  and  then  will  be  chapel.  You'll 
find  the  other  girls  all  waiting  down-stairs." 

And  so  she  bade  them  good-by  and  left  them.     The 


72  THE    FORTUNES    OF    RACHEL. 

little  room  they  were  in  was  tidy,  not  uncomfortable, 
though  a  little  bare.  A  bed  big  enough  for  both,  with 
a  mattress  and  two  pillows  in  it,  but  without  sheets  and 
pillow-cases,  was  not  inviting  for  repose.  None  the  less 
did  the  two  girls  avail  themselves  of  its  welcome.  They 
knew  that  when  their  trunks  arrived,  which  would  be  in 
a  few  minutes,  they  would  be  expected  to  produce  their 
own  stores  of  linen  for  it.  Two  chairs  and  a  table  with 
shelves  for  books,  on  wliich  lay  two  Bibles,  and  one  look- 
ing-glass not  dangerous  to  vanity,  completed  the  furni- 
ture of  this  room.  There  opened  from  it  a  little  room 
or  large  closet,  lighted  by  ground  glass  from  the  larger 
room,  and  in  this  was  a  washstand  and  toilet  furniture. 
The  girls  learned  afterward  that  each  girl  was  expected 
to  spend  most  of  one  hour  of  every  day  quite  alone  for 
serious  meditation  or  for  devotion.  The  two  rooms  were 
arranged  so  that  each  might  have  such  daily  seclusion. 

Teachers,  pupils,  and  governesses  of  the  seminary 
were  all  Protestants  of  the  tenth  power,  or  higher,  if  a 
higher  power  can  be  thought  effective.  But,  if  they  had 
known  it,  they  had  contrived  a  school  wliich  reflected 
many  of  the  conditions  of  a  Catholic  convent.  As  has 
been  said,  each  girl  of  the  five  hundred  had  her  own 
personal  share  of  the  duties  of  the  household,  and  the 
theory  was  that  before  her  course  at  the  school  was  over, 
she  would  be  trained  in  practice  of  each  of  the  depart- 
ments of  housekeeping,  even  were  that  housekeeping 
as  extensive  as  a  duchess  must  carry  on.  By  a  very 
curious  law,  which  had  been  wrought  out  in  the  natural 
selection  of  many  years,  these  duties  were  balanced 
against  each  other  on  a  scale  founded  on  their  ease  or 
difficulty.  Thus  the  daily  term  of  the  girl  to  attend  the 
door-bell  lasted  several  hours,  because  it  was  supposed  to 
be  easy,  and  indeed  ngreeablc.  A  girl  at  the  wash-tub 


AXOTHEU    NEW   WORLD.  73 

would  have  a  much  shorter  period  of  duty  than  a  girl 
who  was  clear-starching,  a  term  midway  between  these 
extremes.  I  am  assured  that  in  a  convent  a  lady  abbess 
would  have  doomed  her  nuns  to  one  or  another  of  these 
duties  by  a  somewhat  arbitrary  decision.  I  am  sure  that 
in  a  phalanstery  each  girl  would  have  done  the  duty  she 
was  attracted  to  do,  but  here  at  Kearsargethe  rule  was  as 
unflinching  as  if  John  Calvin  had  made  it  himself,  as  in- 
deed indirectly  he  had.  That  is  to  say,  there  was  abso- 
lute equality  before  the  law.  One  week  Rachel  was  re- 
sponsible for  putting  the  tablecloths  and  napkins  on  the 
tables,  one  week  she  had  the  forks  in  charge,  and  one 
week  the  knives.  One  week  she  washed,  and  one  week 
she  ironed,  and  one  week  she  was  up  earlier  than  the  rest, 
that  she  might  put  the  biscuits  into  the  oven.  Some- 
times her  work  took  her  twenty  minutes  of  the  day, 
sometimes  it  kept  her  three  times  as  long,  but  the  short 
day's  work  was  hard  and  the  long  day's  work  was  easy. 
But  the  winepress,  whatever  it  was,  was  never  trodden 
alone  ;  all  work  was  lighter  because  it  was  done  amid  a 
troop  of  laughing  girls,  whose  sires  were  far  away  at  work 
in  very  different  affairs. 

As  for  the  teaching  from  books  and  the  learning  from 
books,  both  were  first-rate.  Rachel  did  not  at  the  time 
understand  how  curiously  unlike  the  rest  of  the  world 
the  school  was  in  the  intensity  of  its  purpose.  But  she 
learned  afterward  to  look  back  with  a  certain  wonder  on 
the  life  they  led  there,  wholly  engrossed  in  their  own 
concerns,  and  as  indifferent  to  the  affairs  of  the  rest  of 
the  world  as  passengers  in  a  ship  in  mid-ocean  are  to  the 
affairs  of  the  Sultan  of  Timbuctoo. 

Outside  the  school  there  was  a  joke,  which  had  come 
even  to  Rachel's  ears,  which  implied  that  it  was  estab- 
lished for  the  purpose  of  educating  wives  for  foreign 


74  THE    FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

missionaries,  and  memories  of  this  joke  occasionally 
lighted  up  the  tables  when  some  gray-haired  doctor  of 
divinity  or  other  member  of  the  board  of  trustees  came 
to  dine  with  the  principal.  On  such  occasions  the 
merriest  would  pretend  to  be  on  their  best  behavior  at 
table,  as  if  to  make  sure  that  the  longed-for  choice  of 
early  martyrdom  might  fall  upon  them.  But  this  was 
really  nothing  but  a  joke,  and  in  practice  the  interest  of 
the  school  was  in  algebra,  arithmetic,  geometry,  Latin,  or 
French,  studied  as  if  they  were  ultimate  realities  or 
entities  in  themselves,  and  with  curiously  little  thought 
in  either  case  what  they  were  studied  for. 

But  this  little  book  must  not  concern  itself  with  the  in- 
teresting record  of  the  methods  of  instruction  pursued  at 
Mount  Kearsarge.  For  these  the  disappointed  reader 
must  turn  to  the  catalogues  of  the  day,  and  the  files,  yet 
in  MS.,  of  the  annual  reports  of  the  hard-worked  teachers 
to  the  omnipotent  trustees.  Our  business  is  rather  with 
Rachel  Finley,  and  even  of  her  life  much  of  the  detail 
must,  alas  !  be  passed  over.  "We  must  choose — let  us 
only  hope  we  choose  wisely — what  may  best  illustrate 
her  varied  fortunes. 

The  school,  although  founded  by  the  purest  of  Puri- 
tans, was  not  without  certain  relaxations,  and  the  girls 
were  not  slow  to  push  these  to  the  very  farthest. 
Wherever  an  inch  was  granted  an  ell  was  taken.  -"Walks, 
and  long  walks,  were  within  their  range,  with  no  need  of 
escort  in  that  simple  and  well-governed  country  region — 
well-governed  because  left  to  its  own  governance.  As 
for  riding,  as  the  vernacular  called  what  the  English  pre- 
fer to  call  driving — as  to  going  in  a  carriage  drawn  by 
horses,  in  the  manner  in  which  the  eunuch  went  when 
he  "  rode  in  his  chariot" — the  girls  were  limited  more  by 
their  purses  than  by  the  rules  of  the  school.  When 


ANOTHER    NEW    WOULD.  75 

Saturday  came,  with  some  exemption  from  school  duty, 
any  girl  who  chose  might  hire  a  horse  and  wagon  from 
the  Hobson  of  the  place,  and  take  any  other  girl  on  au 
excursion.  For  masculine  escort  there  was  little  chance 
and  little  favor.  A  girl  might  go  to  ride  with  her 
father,  or  with  her  brother,  or  with  the  fortunate  man  to 
whom  she  was  engaged,  but  with  no  other  man. 

Maria  Kent,  an  audacious  friend  of  Rachel's,  once 
went  to  the  principal  to  ask  permission  to  go  to  ride 
with  Mr.  Wilcox. 

"  And  who  is  Mr.  Wilcox,  Miss  Maria  ?" 
"  He  is  a  friend  of  mine,  from  Kentish  Town." 
"  You  know  the'rules,  Miss  Maria  ;  he  is  certainly  not 
your  father." 

"  No,"  said  Maria,  demurely. 
"  You  have  no  half-brother  named  Wilcox  ?" 
"  No,"  said  poor  Maria. 
'     "  Are  you  engaged  to  the  gentleman  ?" 

"  No,"  said  Maria,  "  but  I  shall  be  before  we  come 
home." 

But  the  request,  under  this  half  and  half  submission, 
could  not  be  gratified. 

Rachel  was  in  her  second  year  in  the  school,  when  as 
the  term  drew  near  its  close,  the  energetic  girls,  who 
were  the  self-constituted  captains  in  such  affairs,  arranged 
a  party  to  the  top  of  the  mountain.  Any  girl  might  go 
who  had  enough  of  her  spending  money  left  to  contrib- 
ute the  moderate  assessment,  and,  as  it  proved  on  this 
occasion,  more  than  a  hundred  agreed  to  go.  The 
good-natured  drivers  of  the  omnibuses  and  stages  were 
consulted,  and  brought  together  from  neighboring 
villages  enormous  covered  vehicles  used  now  to  carry 
furniture,  now  men,  women,  and  children,  and  which, 
in  the  more  recent  vernacular,  are  known  as  barges.  In 


76  THE    POIiTUXES    OF    KAOHF.L. 

these  great  arks  the  young  folks  were  to  be  carried  five 
or  six  miles  well  up  the  lower  slope  of  the  mountain, 
and  the  last  pull  of  the  ascent,  a  hard  walk  of  a  mile  or 
two  more,  was  to  be  made  on  foot.  Then,  indeed,  the 
real  frolic  of  the  expedition  was  to  begin. 

Half  a  dozen  of  the  teachers  went  with  them.  In- 
deed, the  day  would  have  been  regarded  as  imperfect 
had  they  declined.  For  there  was  generally  little  differ- 
ence in  age  between  scholars  and  teachers — there  was 
almost  none  in  purpose — for  every  teacher  was  a  learner 
and  owned  it,  and  the  whole  convent  was  on  the  most 
cordial  relations  between  rulers  and  ruled.  The  teachers 
and  the  more  experienced  girls  became,  of  course,  guides 
to  the  others,  after  the  real  climbing  of  the  mountain- 
side on  foot  began. 

So  it  happened  that  Rachel  with  Lina  and  Miss 
Ilaverstock  were  in  a  group  together,  with  their  hands 
full  of  ladyVslippers  which  Lina  had  brought  in  in 
triumph  from  an  excursion  on  one  side,  and  all  three  were 
trying  to  make  up  for  their  lost  time  by  cutting  off  a 
corner  in  an  ascent  steeper  than  the  regular  roadway 
took,  when  they  came  on  a  young  man  and  young 
woman  sitting  alone,  as  if  to  rest ;  if,  indeed,  they  had  not 
gone  aside  intentionally,  to  be  the  more  free  from  ob- 
servation. 

The  young  woman  was  not  one  of  the  Kearsarge  party. 
She  was  flushed,  perhaps  with  walking.  Her  straw  hat 
swung  in  her  hand. 

The  three  passe i  hastily  by,  almost  affecting  not  to  see 
the  two,  although  it  were  hard  not  to  tread  on  them. 
But  they  did  not  pass  so  quickly  but  that  Rachel  saw 
that  the  young  man  was  John  "Wolff. 

Yes,  John  Wolff  of  the  Baikal  and  of  the  fishing 
schooner  and  Waterville. 


ANOTHER   XEW    WORLD.  77 

Did  John  Wolff  recognize  her,  Rachel  wondered. 
But  she  did  not  know,  nor  did  she  much  care. 

"  \Vhen  can  one  be  off  one's  guard?"  cried  Lina, 
laughing.  "  To  think  that  we  should  have  broken  in  on 
a  scene  so  tender  !' ' 

"  Oh  no,  not  tender,"  said  tolerant  Miss  Haverstock. 
"  The  girl  had  a  toothache.  He  was  probably  the  den- 
tist from  "New  Padua,  and  he  was  trying  to  make  her 
have  her  tooth  pulled. ' ' 

"  I  wish  I  knew,"  said  Lina.  "  But  mean  as  I  am  I 
will  leave  them  alone  and  will  not  play  spoil-sport 
again." 

And  with  walking,  and  straggling,  and  stopping  for 
lady's-slippers,  and  Linnsea,  and  dwarf-cornel,  and  then 
with  hurrying  on  to  make  up  lost  time,  some  alone,  some 
lost  and  found  again,  some  in  jolly  groups,  the  end  of 
two  hours  found  them  on  the  top  of  the  mountain. 
Three  or  four  acres  of  wood  had  been  cut  off  by  sylvan 
lovers  of  the  grander  picturesque,  that  the  prospect, 
almost  infinite,  might  be  enjoyed  by  people  who  did  not 
climb  trees.  From  a  few  of  the  logs  a  rough  cabin  had 
been  built  by  way  of  celebrating  the  Fourth  of  July,  by 
a  band  of  jolly  communists,  who  did  not  know  that  the 
very  institution  of  society  itself  would  be  perilled,  if  men 
united  together  for  the  common  good  and  were  not  paid 
for  their  labors.  Into  this  cabin  and  to  its  simple  luxu- 
ries such  people  retired  as  needed  to  refit  themselves 
from  any  accident  of  travel.  A  closet  in  it  provided 
two  or  three  frying-pans  and  one  or  two  tin  cans  which 
other  communists  had  left  for  the  general  good.  A 
scouting  party  was  already  at  work  bringing  in  water 
from  great  gulfs  in  the  rocks,  well  known  to  earlier  ex- 
plorers. Every  cloud  that  rested  on  the  mountain  left 
its  tribute  in  these  clefts,  and  clear  water  distilled  into 


78  THE    FOKTUNES   OF    KACHEL. 

tliem  for  the  benefit  of  bird,  beast,  and  man.  From 
such  rocky  cisterns  was  first  of  all  collected  the  primal 
necessity  for  mankind  and  womankind  tired  and  faint. 

Strange  to  say,  the  scouting  party  bringing  in  the  water 
to  the  communistic  tubs  and  pails  was  not  a  party  of 
Kearsarge  students,  nor  of  stout  "  daughters  of  the 
plough,"  sent  in  advance  to  prepare  for  them. 

It  was  a  party  of  young  gentlemen,  students  of  the 
University  at  New  Padua,  a  college  which  was  about  six 
miles  from  the  mountain  on  the  north,  as  the  girls' 
seminary  was  six  miles  away  on  the  south. 

The  gentlemen  made  no  expression  of  surprise  at  see- 
ing the  ladies,  nor  did  the  ladies  on  their  side.  Yet 
there  was  not,  in  fact,  one  girl  of  all  of  them  who  had 
really  known  that  these  young  men  would  be  there. 
Only  there  always  was  such  a  party  there  when  the 
Kearsarge  girls  went  up  together.  Somehow  the  young 
men  found  it  out,  and  made  their  plans  for  an  excursion 
on  the  same  day.  They  went  up  on  the  north  side  and 
arrived  a  little  earlier  than  the  girls  did.  The  leaders  of 
the  girls'  party  were  never  afraid  that  they  should  not 
find  the  pails  and  tubs  and  basins  fall  of  water,  a  good 
fire  burning,  and  men  enough  to  refill  the  little  tanks 
when  they  were  empty. 

"  Miss  Dudley,"  said  Maria  Kent,  "  will  you  let  me 
present  to  you  my  friend,  Mr.  "Wilcox  ?  You  have  heard 
me  speak  of  him.  lie  is  one  of  our  Kentish  To\vn  boys 
—the  one  you  thought  was  my  half-brother,"  said  the 
bold  girl,  as  a  final  shot  of  triumph. 

And  it  may  be  hoped  that  before  that  day  was  over 
Mr.  Wilcox  Jmd  earned  the  right  to  take  Maria  Kent  on 
a  drive  whenever  there  was  a  half  holiday  at  the  Mount 
Kearsarge  Seminary. 

Here,  then,  was  the  mystery  accounted  for— if  it  had 


ANOTHER   NEW    WOULD.  79 

seemed  a  mystery  to  Kacliel — of  Mr.  John  Wolffs  ap- 
pearance. 

It  was  not  long  Uefore  lie  joined  her,  this  time  without 
the  blushing  or  flushed  young  girl..  Was  she  blush- 
ing, or  was  she  only  flushed  with  climbing  ?  Mr.  Wolff 
hovered  round  Rachel  and  Lina  and  Miss  Haverstock  as 
they  sat  on  a  heavy  bed  of  hemlock,  and  as  he  and  the 
other  gentlemen  brought  coffee  and  sandwiches  and  other 
stores  from  the  picnic  provided.  So  soon  as  she  recog- 
nized him  he  joined  their  party,  and  was  on  good  terms 
at  once  with  all. 

In  the  midst  of  young  folks'  chatter  and  joke,  "  And 
now,"  he  said,  repeating  the  perfectly  hackneyed  joke, 
"  you  are  to  go  out  as  a  missionary,  I  suppose." 

"  Oh,  that  is  as  Aunt  Lois  says.  She  is  a  despot,  a 
very  krnd  despot,  and  she  does  with  me  just  what  she 
will." 

As  it  happened  Rachel  often  thought  of  this  joking 
speech  afterward.  For  the  moment  he  wras  called  away 
by  one  of  the  masters  of  the  revels,  who  wanted  him  to 
help  in  carrying  off  and  washing  a  great  coffee-kettle. 
lie  said  he  should  be  back  in  a  moment.  But  before  he 
returned  Miss  Harlan,  one  of  the  second  assistants,  came 
to  Rachel  and  Lina,  thinking  that  they  needed  some 
guide,  and  asked  them  to  come  and  see  the  smoke  from 
her  father's  house  on  the  other  side  of  the  valley.  Had 
Rachel  told  the  whole  truth  she  would  have  said,  "  I 
should  rather  not  see  the  smoke.  1  should  rather  stay 
and  talk  with  Mr.  Wolff."  But,  under  such  circum- 
stances, people  generally  keep  back  some  part  of  the 
truth.  At  all  events.  Rachel  did.  She  went  with  Miss 
Harlan  to  the  other  side  of  the  hill-top.  And  when  John 
Wolff  came  back  to  the  throne  of  hemlock  boughs  none 
of  the  princesses  whom  he  had  left  were  there. 


80  THE    FORTUNES    OF    KAC1IEL. 

As  it  happened,  too,  lie  mistook  the  directions  which 
Drum,  a  sophomore  whom  he  found  there,  gave  him  for 
following  them.  He  lost  himself  in  a  heavy  thicket  of 
laurel,  and  what  it  is  to  do  that  no  ~  one  but  he  who  feels 
it  knows.  It  was  with  his  clothes  torn  and  his  hands 
bleeding  that  he  reappeared  on  the  scene  of  action.  It 
cost  him  a  few  minutes  to  repair  and  refit,  that  his  aspect 
might  be  even  decent  for  approach  to  ladies.  When 
those  few  moments  were  over,  the  heads  of  the  seminary 
party  were  counselling  as  to  the  best  course  to  be  taken 
in  view  of  a  black  thunder-cloud  which  was  rolling  up  in 
the  south-west,  and,  as  the  weatherwise  said,  would  take 
the  mountain  in  its  way  before  ten  minutes  were  over. 

Wisely  or  not  the  chiefs  determined  on  immediate  re- 
treat to  the  barges,  and  such  a  retreat  was  ordered. 
Baskets,  bags,  shawls,  and  other  hand-luggage  were 
found  or  not  found,  as  the  case  might  be.  The  gentle- 
men from  New  Padua  generally  joined  the  seminary 
girls,  to  be  of  use  in  "  carrying  their  traps"  for  them. 
But  some  of  them  had  ladies  of  their  own  to  care  for. 
Among  these  was  John  Wolff.  At  the  last  moment, 
almost  before  the  hurried  flight  began,  he  found  Rachel 
and  Lina. 

"  I  was  so  sorry  to  miss  you.  I  tore  my  face  to  pieces 
in  that  bramble  bush  where  they  said  you  had  gone." 

"  Here  is  Miss  Fiskc,  who  came  with  me  from  New 
Padua  ;  1  wanted  to  introduce  her  to  you." 

"  I  am  very  glad  to  know  you,"  said  Rachel  to  the 
pretty  girl,  who  was  the  same  whom  they  had  passed  be- 
fore in  pretended  unconsciousness,  when  she  was  flushed 
or  blushing.  "  Will  you  not  ride  over  and  see  us  some 
day  at  the  seminary  ?' ' 

But  whether  she  would  or  not  Miss  Fiskc  never  told, 
for  at  that  moment  the  first  big  drops  from  the  sky  fell. 


ANOTHER  NEW  WORLD.  81 

One  cry  of  laughter  and  surprise  overpowered  all  other 
conversation,  and  the  rear  guard  of  the  party  was  com- 
pelled by  its  chiefs,  at  a  lively  run,  to  follow  the  others 
down  the  rocky  and  tangled  way. 

If  any  one  cares  to  know,  «very  girl  of  the  hundred 
pleasure-seekers  was  soaked  to  her  skin,  as  she  had  never 
been  soaked  before,  when  they  arrived  at  the  barges. 

They  had  sought  pleasure,  and  for  once  they  had  found 
it.  They  agreed  unanimously,  as  they  rode  home,  that 
it  was  excellent  fun. 

Nor  was  one  of  the  jolly  party  of  omnipotents  in  the 
least  the  worse  for  the  enterprise  the  next  morning. 

Such  triumphs  wait  on  the  recklessness  and  vigor  of 
seventeen. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


is  IT 

'  '  Fear  no  more  the  lightning  flash 
Nor  the  all-dreaded  thunder  storm." 

Cymbeline. 

As  Rachel  ran  down-stairs  the  next  morning  she  was 
intercepted  by  Mary  Flanders,  who  was  acting  that 
month  as  a  sort  of  page  or  errand  girl  to  the  head  of  the 
school. 

"  Miss  Finley,  Miss  Dudley  would  like  to  see  you." 

"  What  —  now  ?  Who  has  the  biscuits  ?  How  can  I 
leave  them  ?" 

"  Ellen  Vose  has  been  taken  oil  the  door  and  takes  the 
biscuits,  and  Jane  Flint  is  taken  oCE  the  brass  cleaning 
for  to-day  and  takes  the  door.  Anyway,  Miss  Dudley 
wants  to  see  you  now." 

What  could  Miss  Dudley  want  of  her  ?  The  biscuits 
had  been  perfect  all  the  month. 

Not  to  chide  her,  certainly.  Miss  Dudley  was  not 
demonstrative  in  general.  But  on  this  occasion  she  rose 
from  her  chair  the  moment  Rachel  entered,  fairly  sprang 
toward  her  and  folded  her  in  her  arms,  and  kissed  her. 

"  My  poor,  dear  Miss  Rachel,  I  have  bad  news  for 
you." 

"  Bad  news  for  me,  Miss  Dudley  ?" 

(i  Yes,  my  child.  Perhaps  you  saw  I  was  keeping 
something  back  last  night.  The  telegram  had  just 


IS   IT   POSSIBLE?  83 

come.      Your  dear    aunt,   my  dear  friend,  Mrs.  Win- 
chell— " 

"Is  sick?" 

"  Is  dead  !" 

"  My  dear,  dear  Aunt  Lois,  ray  dear  Aunt  Lois  !  Is 
it  possible  ? 

'*  Miss  Dudley,  the  dearest,  kindest,  sweetest,  wisest 
friend  a  poor  lost  orphan  ever  had.  My  poor  dear  Aunt 
Lois  !" 

Miss  Dudley  led  Rachel  with  her  to  her  chair,  sat  down 
and  let  the  girl  rest  in  her  arms,  sobbing  upon  her  neck. 

Then  she  roused  again.  "  How  is  it  all  ?  Tell  me 
all  yon  know.  Why,  I  had  a  letter  only  yesterday  !  It 
is  here  now,  and  she  says  she  is  feeling  particularly 
well  !  See  here,"  said  the  girl,  fumbling  with  the 
letter,  in  that  determination,  heaven-born  and  heaven- 
fostered,  in  which  man  or  woman  always  refuses  to  be- 
lieve death  possible. 

"  Yes,  dear,  she  must  have  been  spared  all  suffering. 
They  have  made  the  despatch  long  to  tell  you  that. 
Here  it  is  : 

"'Tell  Miss  Finley  Mrs.  Winchell  suddenly  killed 
by  lightning.  She  died  instantly.  Letter  by  morning 
mail.  — HANNAH  VALENTINE.  ' 

"  Who  is  Hannah  Valentine  ?"  asked  Miss  Dudley. 

"  She  is  the  head  of  the  High  School  now.  Aunt  Lois 
is  very  fond  of  her,  and  she  made  our  house  her  home 
this  summer.  She  must  have  been  in  danger  too.  Killed 
by  lightning  !  Why,  Miss  Dudley,  it  was  our  storm,  the 
storm  \ve  laughed  at  so." 

There  was  a  strange  feeling  of  neighborhood  which 
came  over  Rachel  as  she  spoke,  as  if  she  were  glad  that 
anything  had  united  her  to  the  danger  of  her  dear 
friend. 


84  THE   FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

And  then  Rachel  was  made  to  go  into  Miss  Dudley's 
own  parlor  and  lie  on  the  sofa,  and  Lina,  and  Maria,  and 
Cornelia,  and  all  her  nearest  friends,  vied  with  each 
other  in  thinking  of  little  coddling  and  comforting  things 
they  could  do  for  her.  "  I  am  not  sick,"  said  poor 
Rachel,  once  or  twice,  but  she  was  all  dazed  and 
stunned  ;  and,  indeed,  the  affection  of  the  girls,  no 
matter  how  it  showed  itself,  was  the  only  cordial  which 
even  the  good  God  in  heaven  could  administer  to  her  at 
this  moment.  By  and  by  faith  and  hope  might  come  in 
with  their  special  lessons.  But  now  love  must  do  the 
whole,  as,  in  the  hierarchy  of  duty  and  of  life,  often  hap- 
pens. 

"  You  are  so  kind,"  said  Rachel,  as  without  a  word 
that  rattling  Maria  brought  in  six  great  lady's-slippers  in 
a  vase  which  she  had  borrowed  from  Miss  Ilaverstock, 
and  placed  them  where  Rachel  would  see  them,  if  she 
opened  her  eyes. 

*''  You  are  so  kind,"  said  Rachel. 

"Kind!"  cried  the  impulsive  girl,  and  she  stooped 
and  kissed  her.  "  You  know  1  would  walk  barefoot  to 
Hartford  to  bring  you  a  pin  if  the  pin  would  only  show 
you  that  I  loved  you."  And  what  she  said.  was  true. 

And  at  last  the  morning  ground  away,  and  the  mail 
came  up  from  the  village.  Here  is  the  letter  they  had 
been  waiting  for  : 

Hannah  Yalentine  to  Rachel  Finley. 


,  Wednesday  evening,  June  3. 
"  MY  DEAK,  DEAK  RACHEL  :  It  is  as  sudden  to  us  as  it 
is  to  you.     She  had  just  rung  the  bell  for  tea.     I  was  in 
my  room,  and  heard  the  bell,  and  had  my  hand  on  the 
handle  of  my  door,  when  the  flash  came.     I  was  blinded. 


IS  IT  POSSIBLE?  85 

1  think  1  staggered,  but  in  a  moment  all  seemed  clear, 
and  1  ran  down  toftell  her  that  1  thought  I  must  have 
felt  the  shock. 

"  Rachel,  she  was  lying  on  the  floor  of  the  hall.  She 
was  dead  ! 

"  We  think  that  after  she  rang  the  tea-bell  she  walked 
forward  to  see  the  pile  of  clouds.  I  had  been  watching 
them  from  my  window.  You  know  she  never  was 
afraid  of  lightning.  Strange  to  say,  this  was  the  first 
bolt,  and  I  think  the  last.  But,  indeed,  there  might 
have  been  forty  and  I  should  not  have  known.  I  was 
working  over  her  in  every  way  I  knew,  but  there  was 
not  ajbreath,  not  a  sigh  from  the  first.  The  doctor  was 
here  as  soon  as  he  could  be,  and  Mr.  Tyndale  and  the 
McClearys,  and  everybody  has  been  so  kind  ;  but,  oh, 
dear  me,  it  is  all  dreadful  ! 

"  Come  as  soon  as  you  can.     I  am  lost  without  you. 

"  John  McCleary  is  going  to  Boston  on  the  night  ex- 
press and  will  mail  this  there.  James  took  a  telegraph 
for  me  before  seven  to  Miss  Dudley. 

"  My  dear  child,  I  am  always  your  own 

"HANNAH." 

"  Tou  will  hardly  come  back  before  the  exhibition," 
said  Miss  Dudley,  as  Eachel  bade  her  good-by  when  the 
coach  was  announced. 

"  Hardly,"  said  Rachel.  "  You  know  we  strained  a 
point  terribly  with  her  before  she  would  let  me  stay  so 
long.  '  Six  months  is  enough,  my  dear,'  those  were  her 
last  words  to  me.  And  if  you  had  not  given  me  those 
six  weeks  at  Christmas  1  should  not  be  here  now. 

"  It  is  of  no  use  wishing  I  had  been  there.  You  know 
Dr.  Withers  told  us  we  must  never  say  '  if,'  and  I  try 
not  to  think  it." 


86  THK    FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

And  so  with  floods  of  tears  Rachel  bade  her  teachers 
and  her  other  friends  good-by.  She*did  not  know  but 
she  might  return  in  October.  But  she  knew  nothing  of 
the  future.  In  point  of  fact,  she  never  saw  the  semi- 
nary again. 

No.  As  her  fortunes  opened  before  her,  it  proved 
that  when  Rachel's  trunk  was  put  upon  the  coach  for 
the  station,  and  when  she  entered  it,  she  cut  herself  off 
from  her  old  life  as  truly  as  when  she  fell  into  the  sea 
and  was  hauled  into  the  boat  by  John  "Wolff's  strong 
arm. 

Aunt  Lois  Winchell  must  have  meant  to  make  some 
provision  for  Rachel  Finley  in  her  will,  but  will,  if  she 
made  one,  was  not  found,  has  not  been  found  to  this 
hour.  There  followed  a  complete  break-up,  such  as  can 
hardly  follow  in  this  world,  so  complete  in  every  detail, 
as  in  a  village  from  which  in  fifty  years  every  living 
being  has  emigrated,  who  was  not  anchored  to  it  by  what 
the  law  calls  real  property. 

The  colonel  was  long  since  dead.  His  room  in  the 
house,  his  portrait,  and  his  sash,  were  all  that  remained 
to  preserve  his  memory.  Aunt  Lois's  sister  had  long 
since  made  her  winter  home  in  Florence  and  her  summer 
home  in  the  Tyrol.  She  was  the  heir-at-law.  Of  course 
the  law  knew  nothing  of  such  ties  as  bound  Rachel  to 
Aunt  Lois.  Strictly  speaking,  there  was  no  more  reason 
why  she  should  spend  an  hour  in  that  house  than  why 
she  should  stay  in  any  other  house  in  Hitchin. 

There  was  the  funeral.  There  was  packing  of 
Miss  Lois's  valuables,  and  making  inventories  of  them, 
and  of  the  books,  to  be  sent  to  her  sister.  Mr.  Tyndale 
and  Mr.  Barnard  were  appointed  administrators,  and 
then  there  was  waiting  to  know  what  the  wishes  of  Mrs. 


IS    IT    POSSIBLE?  87 

Conolly  were,  as  soon  as  a  letter  could  be  sent  to 
Innspruck  and  a  reply  received.  For  she  was  travelling 
to  and  fro,  and  hurry  was  quite  impossible.  For  a  little, 
Rachel  stayed  in  her  old  room,  but  after  a  little  they 
shut  up  the  dear  old  house.  ISfahum  went  his  way,  and 
the  old  servant-mistresses,  who  had  long  presided  over 
different  departments,  went  theirs.  Rachel  met  Mr. 
Tyndale  there,  once  and  again,  when  he  could  make  uso 
of  her.  She  took,  as  they  bade  her,  and  as  in  the  end 
Mrs.  Conolly  bade  her,  some  such  little  mementoes  of 
her  aunt  as  were  of  no  cost  in  an  appraisement.  Mr. 
Tyndale  went  so  far  as  to  suggest  to  Mrs.  Conolly  that 
she  should  make  to  Rachel  a  present,  and  even  named 
two  or  three  thousand  dollars  as  a  proper  sum.  But 
Mrs.  Conolly  did  not  see  the  matter  in  that  light.  Be- 
cause her  sister  had  given  a  pleasant  home  to  a  young 
girl  for  three  years,  and  had  educated  her  at  a  good 
school  for  two  more,  she  saw  no  reason  why  the  family 
should  continue  to  take  care  of  her. 

Such  was  the  answer  which  Mr.  Tyndale  would  have 
shown  to  Rachel  with  some  indignation,  had  Rachel  re- 
mained in  Hitchin  till  it  came.  But  Rachel  was  no 
longer  there. 

She  had  had  no  share  in  sending  any  message  to  Mrs. 
Conolly.  She  had  never  known  Mrs.  Conolly,  nor  had 
Mrs.  Conolly  ever  known  her.  Rachel  knew  very  well 
who  was  to  take  care  of  her. 

It  was  Rachel  Finley.  And  at  the  first  she  was  em- 
barrassed by  the  multitude  of  her  advisers. 

Mrs.  Barnard  at  the  other  village  drove  over  in  some 
state,  to  ask  her  to  come  and  spend  a  month  with  her  till 
the  affaire  should  all  be  settled,  and  the  Conollys  could 
be  heard  from.  Indeed,  there  was  a  sheaf  of  invitations 
from  different  people  in  Hitchin.  The  most  part  of 


88  THE    FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

Hitchin  thought  that  one's  first  duty  in  life  was  to  avoid 
leaving  that  town  by  any  accident. 

Miss  Dudley  sent  a  cordial  invitation  from  the  semi- 
nary. A  few  of  the  teachers  were  going  to  take  their 
summer  outing  by  staying  there.  Would  not  Rachel 
join  their  little  home  party  ? 

But  the  invitation  Rachel  accepted  was  from  Cecilia 
Vauglian. 


Cecilia  Vauglian  to  Rachel  Finley. 

"  KEARSAEGE  SEMINARY,  June  30. 

"  MY  DEAR  RACHEL  :  I  have  your  second  letter,  and  1 
am  glad  to  see  you  are  not  quite  a  goose.  I  have 
written  to  my  mother,  and  it  is  all  settled. 

"  We  must  go  alone,  but  that  is  no  matter.  It  is  one 
car  all  the  way  to  Chicago. 

"  We  shall  be  in  Chicago  from  eight  in  the  morning 
till  three,  then  my  uncle  will  take  us  to  Lake  Constance  ; 
and  that  evening,  joy,  joy,  joy,  you  will  see  my 
father  and  my  mother,  and  they  will  see  you  !  I  shall  be 
perfectly  happy  !  My  father  would  come  and  meet  us 
at  Chicago,  but  that  Uncle  Jo  is  just  as  well. 

"  You  are  to  stay  all  the  summer  till  we  go  back  to 
!N"ew  Altoona.  They  opened  the  house  at  Lake  Con- 
stance last  Wednesday.  There  seem  to  have  been 
thieves  living  in  it  at  some  part  of  the  winter,  but  they 
have  stolen  nothing  but  a  ducking  gun,  the  second 
volume  of  '  Charles  Grandison,'  and  a  German  diction- 
ary. Those  are  thieves  of  some  decency,  are  not 
they  ? 

"  Nobody  but  an  English  girl  would  have  made  me 
telegraph  to  my  mother  to  know  if  she  wanted  you,  as 


IS  IT  POSSIBLE?  89 

if  1  did  not  know  !     What's  mine  is  hers  and  what's 
hers  is  mine. 

"  Meet  me  at  Springfield,  in  the  howling  wilderness, 
when  the  1  P.M.  trains  come  together. 
"  Darling,  I  am  always, 

"  CECILIA  VAUGHAN." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

FORGOTTEN    TREASURE. 

"  Sylvia.  Nay,  take  them. 

Valentine.  Madam,  they  are  for  you." 

Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona. 

IT  was  in  the  packing  of  her  books,  clothes,  and  other 
accumulations  of  five  years,  the  destroying  of  letters,  the 
giving  away  of  keepsakes  and  other  such  cares  which 
make  the  last  days  of  any  long  residence  hateful,  and 
make  any  change  tolerable,  even  were  it  to  a  ship's 
cabin,  that  Rachel  came  upon  a  waif  long  since  wholly 
forgotten. 

It  was  the  share  in  the  New  England  Stocking  Com- 
pany which  Mr.  Poore  had  given  to  her,  at  her  first 

party. 

"  What  is  that  elegant  evidence  of  value,  my  dear 
child  ?"  said  Hannah  Valentine.  "  I  did  not  know  that 
you  were  a  '  bloated  bondholder. '  ' 

"  Nor  I,"  said  Rachel,  laughing.  "  I  have  not 
thought  of  this  thing  for  years.  I  should  have  told  you 
five  minutes  ago  that  my  '  convertible  assets, '  as  Mr. 
Barnard  says,  were  forty-seven  dollars,  now  in  my 
pocket-book,  and  eleven  cents,  now  in  my  purse. 

"  But,  behold,  I  also  am  the  owner  of  share  No.  993 
in  the  New  England  Stocking-Loom  Company,  value 
minus  one  cent.  Hannah,  I  want  to  give  you  some- 
thing. I  will  give  you  this,  and  you  shall  cut  out  the 
pictures  for  your  hospital  scrap-book." 


FORGOTTEN"   TREASURE.  91 

"Are  you  sure  it  is  worth  nothing  at  all?'1  asked 
Hannah,  less  carelessly. 

"  I  know  that  Mrs.  Wincliell  thought  it  was  nothing 
five  years  ago,  and  I  believe  that  nothing  at  compound 
interest  for  five  years  generally  amounts  to  nothing  or 
less,  when  you  are  talking  of  business.  But  if  you  will 
not  take  it,  why  1  remember  Miss  Willard  would  not 
take  it  at  the  Sewing  Circle." 

And  she  told  Hannah  the  story.  But,  all  the  same, 
Hannah  made  her  put  by  the  envelope  carefully.  In  the 
course  of  an  hour  Mr.  Tyndale  came  in,  and  Hannah 
told  him  about  the  certificate. 

"Worth  anything  2  1  should  think  so!''  he  said, 
laughing.  "  That  pretty  village  you  pass  on  the  Boston 
and  Maine,  beyond  William's  Crossing,  has  grown  out 
of  the  Stocking  Loom.  The  last  sale  I  heard  of  of  the 
stock  was  when  John  Corarn  died.  The  shares  were 
worth  four  or  five  hundred  dollars  then." 

"  Four  or  five  hundred  dollars  !  This  scrap  of  paper 
worth  four  or  five  hundred  dollars  ?" 

"  You  say  you  have  never  drawn  any  interest  ?  They 
divide  sixty  or  eighty  per  cent  a  year.  The  shares  were 
issued  at  fifty  dollars,  then  they  were  a  drug  on  the 
market.  Afterward  somebody  else  bought  up  what  lie 
could  get.  I  congratulate  you,  Rachel.  This  is  worth 
six  or  seven  hundred  dollars  !" 

"  Then  I  shall  read  the  story  of  Aladdin  with  more 
respect,  Mr.  Tyndale." 

"  And  perhaps  you  will  never  give  away  any  old 
lamps  or  old  pamphlets.  If  I  have  taught  you  that  I 
have  taught  you  something,"  said  he.  "  You  had  better 
write  and  ask  who  the  officers  are  now,  or  1  will  write 
for  you.  Here  is  the  address,  99  North  Devonshire 
Street,  Boston." 


92  THE  FORTUNES  OF  RACHEL. 

Rachel  thanked  him,  and  lie  went  away.  She  put  on 
her  hat  and  went  to  the  post-office,  and  asked  to  what 
place  Mr.  Poore  had  removed.  She  knew  he  no  longer 
had  any  country  home  in  Ilitchin,  as  he  had  five  years 
before,  but  there  was  no  difficulty  about  his  address.  He 
was  a  partner  in  a  great  New  York  firm  which  received 
many  packing-cases  from  Ilitchin  every  week. 

Rachel  came  home  and  wrote  the  following  letter  : 

Rachel  Finley  to  Thomas  Poore. 

"  HITCHIN,  July  3. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  :  You  will  find  enclosed  a  paper  which 
you  placed  in  my  hands  in  joke  many  years  ago. 

"  I  am  mortified  to  find  it  to-day,  and  I  beg  you  will 
understand  that  I  had  wholly  forgotten  it. 

"  Indeed,  when  I  found  it  1  should  have  destroyed  it 
as  being  of  no  value,  but  that  a  friend  tells  me  that  it  is 
really  of  very  large  value. 

"  Pray  do  not  think  that  I  have  intentionally  kept  a 
valuable  document,  for,  indeed,  1  had  forgotten  1  had 
it ;  not  to  say  that  1  believe  I  have  never  heard  of  the 
Stocking  Company  from  that  day  to  this. 
"  Respectfully  yours, 

"RACHEL  FINLEY." 

"  I  cannot  think  you  will  remember  me.  I  was  a 
little  girl,  sitting  by  Miss  Willard  and  Miss  Cordis,  when 
you  were  joking  about  the  stockings." 

Tom  Poore,  as  all  men  called  him,  was  taking  the 
luxury  of  a  holiday  in  his  own  private  den  high  up  toward 
heaven.  He  was  above  most  men  in  New  York,  and  a 
cool  air  drew  through  his  windows.  His  day's  work 


FORGOTTEN   TREASURE.  93 

was  done  when  somebody,  who  had  a  message  from  the 
warerooms  below,  came  up  the  elevator  and  brought  the 
"  personal  "  mail. 

"  Ilitchin"  on  the  postmark  struck  Tom's  eye,  and  he 
cut  open  the  envelope.  The  other  letters  he  left,  for  he 
was  reading  a  novel  by  Cherbuliez,  and  had  not  meant 
to  touch  any  letter.  But  he  was  fond  of  Hitchin. 

Tom  liked  this  letter.  Nor  was  the  subject  a  new  one 
to  him.  He  had  gone  backward  and  forward  through  its 
phases  with  Miss  Ruth  Cordis.  Indeed,  having  his  eyes 
open,  he  had,  not  long  after  he  gave  these  two  shares  to 
the  girls,  invested  a  thousand  dollars  in  the  Stocking- 
Loom  Companies  of  different  districts,  the  New  England 
Company  among  the  rest.  Taking  them  one  with 
another,  these  stocks  now  represented  to  Tom  a  capital 
of  about  $250,000,  the  New  England  Company  being  by 
far  the  most  valuable  of  all.  Tom  laid  down  the  Cher- 
buliez, and  wrote,  on  his  most  elegant  paper,  this  note  : 

Thomas  Poore  to  Rachel  Finley. 

"  943  DOANE  STREET,  NEW  YORK,  July  4. 

"  MY  PEAK  Miss  FINLEY  i  You  think  my  memory 
much  worse  than  it  is.  I  remember  with  great  pleasure 
the  evening  we  spent  together  at  Mrs.  Barnard's. 

"  You  will  find  enclosed  your  share  in  the  New  England 
Stocking  Company.  I  send  this  by  registered  mail,  aud 
you  will  have  to  give  a  receipt  for  it  at  your  post-office. 

"  The  share  is  in  every  sense  yours.  There  is  no 
method  of  book-keeping  by  which  it  could  ever  appear 
on  my  books  as  mine,  unless,  indeed,  you  will  let  me 
send  you  six  hundred  and  seventy-one  dollars  and  thirty- 
nine  cents  ($671.39),  which  is  its  value  (at  the  rate  of  the 
last  sales),  with  accrued  interest,  to-day. 


04  THE    FORTUNES   OF    EACHEL. 

"  I  shall  gladly  make  this  purchase  if  you  wish,  as  it  is 
for  the  interest  of  my  firm  to  purchase  as  many  outlying 
shares  in  small  amounts  as  we  can. 

"  Hoping  often  to  meet  you  in  our  dear,  dreamy 
Hitchin,  I  am  very  truly,  your  obliged  servant, 

"THOMAS  POORE." 

This  letter  came  to  Hitchin  as  Rachel  was  waiting  for 
the  carriage  which  took  her  to  the  train.  So  she  had  to 
carry  the  certificate  with  her  to  Lake  Constance.  Onco 
there  she  wrote  the  following  letter  at  once  : 


Hachel  Finley  to  Thomas  Poore. 

"  LAKE  CONSTANCE,  July  8. 

"  MY  DEAR  MR.  POORE  :  As  you  will  see  from  the 
enclosed,  I  received  at  Hitchin  your  kind  letter  and  its 
enclosure. 

"  You  have  seen  how  unused  to  business  I  am,  in  mv 
carelessness  in  enclosing  to  you  anything  so  valuable  in  a 
letter  not  registered. 

"  I  will  not  make  such  a  mistake  again. 

11  If  it  is  hard  to  explain  the  transaction  on  your  books, 
you  will  see  it  is  impossible  to  explain  it  on  mine. 

';  You  paid  something  for  the  stock,  and  your  books 
will  show  something  for  something. 

"  I  have  paid  nothing  for  it,  and  therefore  is  it  that  I 
find  no  account  to  which  1  can  charge  it. 

"  Believe  me,  my  dear  sir,  very  respectfully  yours, 

"  KACHEL  FINLEY." 

When  Rachel  read  this  letter  over  she  thought  it  a 
little  hard  or  wooden  as  she  said.  Cecilia  thought  it 


FORGOTTEN   TREASURE.  95 

very  hard  when  she  was  consulted.  But  Rachel  said  that 
in  such  things  the  first  essay  was  apt  to  be  best.  How- 
ever, she  consented  to  add  this  P.  S. : 

';  I  hope  you  do  not  think  that  I  am  acting  as  foolishly 
and  rudely  as  I  thought  the  treasurer  of  the  society  acted 
when  you  offered  the  shares  to  her.  Believe  me,  I  am 
very  grateful  for  your  kindness,  and  do  not  mean  to  be 
rude." 

Tom  Poore  liked  this  letter  as  he  had  liked  the  other. 
The  subject,  as  has  been  said,  was  not  new  to  him,  and 
he  at  once  wrote  this  reply,  which  closed  the  correspond- 
ence : 

Thomas  Poore  to  Rachel  Finley. 

"  DOANE  STREET,  NEW  YORK  CITY,  July  11. 

"  MY  DEAR  Miss  FINLEY  :  I  have  your  prompt  and 
thoughtful  note  with  the  long-travelling  certificate,  and 
for  both  I  am  greatly  indebted. 

"  I  beg  you  to  understand  that  I  respect  your  scruples 
entirely,  and  am  flattered  that  you  are  willing  to  express 
them  to  me. 

"  Will  you  pardon  me  if  I  say  that  I  came,  long  since, 
to  an  amicable  arrangement  with  Miss  Cordis,  who,  as 
you  may  remember,  received  the  third  of  these  shares 
which  seek  a  resting-place  so  vainly.  She  had  difficul- 
ties not  unlike  yours,  and  mine  were  precisely  the  same 
as  they  are  now. 

"  We  agreed,  finally,  that  on  the  1st  of  January,  1900, 
we  will  all  three  meet  at  Tiffany's  in  New  York. 

"  Miss  Cordis  reminded  me  that  at  Mrs.  Barnard's 
house  there  was  some  such  agreement. 

"  We  are  then  to  take  ices  together*  at  Taylor's,  and 
while  we  do  so  to  tell  how  much  good  and  how  much 
harm  the  shares  have  done  to  us,  to  what  uses  we  have 


96  THE   FORTUNES   OF   RACHEL. 

devoted  the  proceeds,  and  what  we  will  then  do  with 
what  is  left  of  them.  Miss  Cordis,  in  her  bright  way, 
has  stated  this  in  a  contract  which  I  have  the  honor  to 
enclose.  If  it  pleases  yon,  I  am  sure  she  will  be  glad  to 
consider  you  as  a  third  party  to  the  agreement. 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  madam,  with  great  respect, 
your  obedient  servant, 

"  THOMAS  POOKE." 

After  this  Rachel  thought  she  must  go  no  further. 
She  would  take  the  stock  for  better  for  worse  as  a  loan 
made  to  her  by  her  good  angel  till  the  1st  of  January, 
1900,  if  that  day  ever  came. 

Rachel  was  not  an  Adventist,  but  she  certainly  had  no 
"realizing  sense"  that  she  should  be  in  the  flesh  when 
that  date  came  round — nay,  that  it  would  come  round. 

And  Tom  Poore,  who  had  been  pleased  with  her  whole 
bearing,  handwriting,  folding  of  her  paper,  and  all, 
wrote  this  note  to  his  niece  Huldah  Furness  in  Ilitchin  : 


Thomas  Poore  to  Huldah  Furness. 

"  July  11. 

"  MY  DEAR  HULDAH  :  You  must  know  some  one  who 
knows  Miss  Rachel  Finley,  who  has  lately  left  Hitchin. 
A  friend  of  mine  who  knows  her  a  little  wants  to  see  her 
photograph.  Can  you  not  get  it  for  me  ?  Do  not  make 
any  fuss  about  it  nor  let  any  one  know  that  you  send  it  to 
me. 

11  Have  you  seen  the  new  Scribner  f  I  send  a  copy  by 
this  mail. 

"  Your  affectionate  uncle, 

"ToM." 


FOUGOTTKX    T  UK  A  SI 'It  1C.  <-.•' 

Iluldah  Furncss  to  Thomas  Poorc. 

"  HITCHIN,  July  13. 

"  MY  DEAK  UNCLE  :  This  is  an  easier  commission  than 
you  sent  me  about  the  mushrooms.  Rachel  Finley — well, 
she  is  my  dearest  friend,  and  the  nicest  girl  in  this  world. 
I  wish  it  was  you  that  wanted  to  know  how  pretty  she  is 
and  not  some  rubbishy  friend  of  yours.  I  suppose  it  is 
about  her  lost  father  and  mother,  but  I  am  not  even  cu- 
rious about  them,  for  I  know  they  will  never  be  found. 
Here  is  the  picture.  Is  riot  she  just  lovely  ?  You  must 
send  it  right  back,  for  she  gave  it  to  me  herself,  and  I 
cannot  live  without  it. 

u  Thank  you  for  the  Scribner,  and  thank  you  always 
for  being  so  nice  and  good. 

"  Your  own  little 

"IlULDAH." 

Tom  Poore  did  think  the  picture  was  "  just  lovely." 
He  took  it  at  once  to  a  photographer,  ordered  a  copy  of 
it  of  twice  the  size  of  the  card  to  be  made  on  porcelain, 
and  in  three  days  Hnldah  had  her  card  again. 

Tom's  porcelain,  framed  in  velvet,  hung  by  the  side 
of  the  window  in  his  sleeping-room.  Tom  went  himself 
to  a  shop  where  he  was  not  known  and  bought  a  small 
gold  ring. 


CHAPTER  X. 

LAKE     CONSTANCE. 

"  And  when  at  ere  his  fellow  pilgrims  sat, 
Discoursing  of  the  Lake,— asked  where  it  was." 

Samuel  Rogers. 

WE  have  gone  a  little  before  our  story  in  introducing 
Rachel's  letter  from  Lake  Constance,  but  it  seemed  more 
convenient  to  put  those  business  matters  out  of  the  way. 

It  should  be  explained  to  dull  readers  that  this  Lake 
Constance  is  not  in  Switzerland.  Who  shall  say  indeed 
that  this  ungeographical  writer  has  not  mistaken  the 
name  ?  Yet  those  letters  can  scarcely  be  wrong.  Prob- 
ably within  fifty  years  it  was  known  as  Burned  Slab 
Pond,  or  Gosham's  Lake,  or  by  some  other  detestable 
name.  Constance  we  will  call  it  now. 

Life  at  Lake  Constance  was,  as  it  proved,  just  the  best 
change  and  the  best  tonic  for  poor  Rachel.  Excepting 
her  friend  Cecilia  there  was  no  one  in  all  the  company  at 
that  gay  watering-place  whom  she  had  ever  seen  before. 
And  although  one  may  call  it  a  gay  watering-place,  life 
can  be  as  tranquil  in  such  a  house  as  Mr.  Vanghan's,  as 
ever  a  lady  abbess  might  choose  to  order,  if  there  were 
a  lady  abbess  there.  In  the  mere  externals  everything 
was  different  from  what  it  was  at  Kearsarge  or  Hitchin. 
There  the  sun  rose  and  set  behind  mountains,  here  every- 
thing was  level.  There  the  forests  were  mostly  ever- 
green, here  every  tree  was  of  what  the  natives  would 


LAKE    <  OXSTAXCK.  90 

have  called  "  liard  wood."  More  than  this,  in  these 
centres  of  civilization  at  the  East,  every  one  from  early 
morning  to  late  evening  had  a  duty  on  hand  or  apologized 
for  not  having  one.  But  in  this  summer  holiday  at  the 
West,  no  one  pretended  to  have  any  all  dav  long. 

Life  passed  easily  enough  in  long  sessions  at  table,  in 
reading  aloud,  in  bathing,  rowing,  and  sailing,  in  walk- 
ing, riding  on  horseback,  or  driving,  in  long  siestas,  in 
charade  parties,  and  in  card  parties.  In  the  jolly  circle 
at  the  great  hotel  a  set  of  irrepressible  young  people  got 
up  hops,  and  concerts,  and  theatricals,  and  occasionally 
celebrated  a  holiday  by  an  evening  display  of  fireworks 
and  by  bringing  together  in  such  festivities  every  tug 
and  boat  upon  the  lake  with  weird  displays  of  many- 
colored  lanterns.  The  people  in  the  cottages,  to  which 
superior  class  the  Yaughans  and  Rachel  for  the  moment 
belonged,  did  or  did  not  take  part  in  these  amusements. 
They  could  join  in  them  if  they  chose  ;  they  need  not 
join  if  they  did  not  choose. 

Some  very  energetic  people  kept  up  a  book  club,  and 
so  you  had  more  novels  than  you  knew  what  to  do  with, 
and  more  magazines  than  you  ever  heard  of,  all  on  the 
virtual  condition  that  you  should  read  none  of  them. 
Once  a  week  the  book  club  met  at  one  house  or  another 
for  afternoon  tea,  and  you  heard  a  paper  read  on  the 
correlation  of  forces,  or  on  the  color  of  the  eyelashes  of 
Thalaba,  according  as  the  man  or  woman  of  letters,  who 
was  the  light  of  the  afternoon,  happened  to  have  studied 
the  one  subject  or  the  other. 

Thus  tranquilly  passed  ten  weeks  of  this  happy  corner 
of  Elysium.  Then  the  Arabs  .who  lived  in  it  folded 
their  tents  and  went  back  to  the  clamor  and  clangor  of 
autumn,  of  winter,  and  of  spring.  Hotels  and  cottages 
were  left  alone  to  the  tender  mercies  of  dying  flies  and 


100  THE    FORTl'XF.S   OF    RACHEL. 

of  tramps,  until  another  June  brought  in  the  housemaid, 
the  painter,  the  glazier,  and  the  purveyor,  to  make  all 
ready  for  another  summer. 

Poor  Rachel  needed  some  time  to  come  to  her  bearings. 
Her  friends  knew  how  terrible  had  been  the  strain  and 
pressure  upon  her,  and  prudently  left  her  much  alone. 
For  herself,  she  discovered  the  resources  of  her  new 
home  for  rest,  refreshment,  and  life,  and  gradually  she 
tested  them. 

The  girl  was  a  fearless  oarsman,  as  she  had  been  used 
to  boats  both  at  Hitchin  and  at  Kearsarge.  She  caught 
readily  from  Tom  Yaughan  the  notion  of  the  curved 
stroke  of  the  paddle  of  the  canoe,  and  afterward  gladly 
took  his  permission  to  use  his  birch  for  lonely  cruises. 
She  learned  very  soon  which  of  the  pretty  coves  of  Lake 
Constance  is  shady  in  the  morning  and  which  in  the 
afternoon.  With  the  pretence  of  reading,  and  some- 
times the  reality,  she  took  possession  of  one  or  another 
every  morning,  and  if  no  party  to  ride  or  drive  or  sail 
formed  itself  in  the  afternoon  she  was  apt  to  take  her 
canoe  alone  then. 

It  was  a  little  late  on  one  of  the  August  .afternoons 
which  she  had  thus  spent  by  herself,  when,  as  she  re- 
turned, she  passed  a  gentleman  in  one  of  the  smaller 
boats  ;  sailing  with  such  little  wind  as  offered.  He 
touched  his  hat,  as,  in  the  simple  courtesies  of  Lake  Con- 
stance, every  gentleman  on  the  water  did  to  every  lady. 
Rachel,  like  all  people  who  paddle,  was  facing  in  the 
direction  in  which  the  canoe  was  going,  and  she  did  not 
observe  that  the  boatman  at  once  tacked  and  ran  into  the 
little  landing-place.  For  herself  she  loitered  on  the  way 
home,  and  when  she  reached  the  shore  he  came  to  the 
landing  plank  to  meet  her.  She  did  not  know  him,  but 
she  was  not  surprised  that  he  held  the  canoe  till  she  had 


LAKE    CONSTANCE.  101 

landed,  nor  that  lie  fastened  it  fore  and  aft  to  the  stakes 
where  it  belonged.  Such  an  attention  from  a  gentleman 
to  a  lady  was  by  no  means  obtrusive  in  the  cordial  life  of 
Lake  Constance. 

But  when  this  was  done  and  Eachel  had  thanked  him, 
he  touched  his  hat  again,  and  said,  "  I  think  I  am 
speaking  to  Miss  Finley." 

"  Yes,"  said  she,  "  but  I  am  ashamed  to  say  that  I  do 
not  recognize  you." 

"  There  is  no  reason  why  you  should  be  ashamed. 
We  have  not  met  for  many  years,  indeed  we  hardly  met 
then,  though  we  have  had  some  correspondence.  I  am 
Mr.  Thomas  Poore." 

Rachel  laughed  and  welcomed  him  cordially  to  Lake 
Constance.  Who  was  he  visiting  ?  It  proved  that  he 
was  at  the  hotel.  He  had  heard  that  she  was  at  Mr. 
Vaughan's,  and  had  taken  the  liberty  to  call.  But  not 
finding  her,  he  Irad  been  tempted  to  try  one  of  the  boats, 
which  he  had  found  neat  and  easily  handled. 

Of  course  they  walked  to  the  house  together,  and  at 
Rachel's  invitation  he  came  in.  As  it  happened,  a  dozen 
other  people  had  dropped  in,  by  one  accident  or  invitation 
or  another,  and  the  piazza  tea  party  was  larger  than 
usual.  After  tea  the  children  got  up  some  charades  in 
the  back  parlor.  The  visitors  generally  took  an  interest 
and  eventually  took  part.  And  so,  before  the  evening 
was  over,  Mr.  Thomas  Poore,  who  was  by  no  means  shy 
or  ignorant  of  the  way  to  live  and  to  talk,  was  on 
sufficiently  good  terms  with  all  the  company.  He 
walked  home  with  those  who  came  from  his  hotel,  six 
or  eight  persons  as  it  happened.  Before  lunch  the  next 
morning  they  had  made  him  feel  at  ease  with  a  dozen  or 
twenty  others.  And  so,  nobody  ever  guessed  that  when 
Mr.  Poore  had  taken  his  solitary  dinner  iu  that  house  on  . 


102  TUE    FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

the  day  of  his  arrival,  lie  knew  no  Imman  being  at  Lake 
Constance  by  sight,  or  by  name,  except  Miss  Rachel 
Finley.  That  she  was  there  he  had  learned  from  the 
date  of  her  letter  written  some  weeks  before.  How 
Miss  Rachel  herself  looked,  he  had  learned  from  her 
porcelain  counterfeit  in  his  own  private  room.  That 
Lake  Constance  proved  to  be  the  pleasant,  easy,  lazy, 
lively  place  that  it  is,  was  luck  much  better  than  Mr. 
Poore  had  for  a  moment  hoped  for,  when  he  determined 
to  give  himself  his  August  holiday  in  that  part  of  the 
country.  That  Mr.  Yaughan's  summer  house  should 
prove  to  be  about  as  pleasant  a  house  for  July  and 
August  as  there  is  in  the  world,  was  certainly  much  more 
than  he  had  expected.  He  had  taken  his  chances,  and 
he  had  found  that  fortune  favors  the  brave. 

"Mrs.  Yaughan,"  said  Mr.  Poore,  one  pleasant 
morning,  when  he  surprised  them  all  at  breakfast,  "we 
have  at  our  house  a  very  learned  antiquary,  who  is  here 
studying  the  portrait  mounds,  those  queer  things  which 
look  like  buffaloes,  or  horses,  or  clogs,  or  men,  if  you 
make  believe  very  hard.  We  have  been  making  a  party 
to  go  with  him  this  afternoon  to  see  the  bear  and  eagle 
on  the  Pottawatomie  Divide,  and  perhaps  we  shall  find 
that  it  is  the  lion  and  the  unicorn.  I  hoped  we  might 
find  some  recruits  here.  My  carriage  will  hold  three  or 
four  more  :  can  I  not  tempt  any  of  you  rC ' 

Mrs.  \7~atighan  was  gracious  and  good-natured.  Her 
husband  pooh-poohed  the  whole  thing.  He  had  owned 
three  buffaloes  and  two  brooms,  he  believed  ;  the  buffaloes 
were  five  hundred  feet  long,  and  each  broom  was  as  long 
as  three  buffaloes.  "  I  kept  them,  from  reverence  to 
antiquity,  for  five  years,"  said  he,  "but  I  found  they 
were  much  more  easily  studied  in  the  pictures  than  in 
fact,  and  I  told  Cephas  last  summer  that  he  might 


LAKE  CONSTANCE.  103 

plough  over  the  buffaloes,  which  was  a  great  comfort  to 
him/' 

But  Cecilia  was  not  to  be  laughed  out  of  a  pleasant 
afternoon  excursion  so  easily  ;  and  after  an  early  lunch, 
Mr.  Poore,  triumphant  as  always,  came  round  in  a 
handsome  open  barouche.  Tom  Vanghan  mounted  the 
seat  with  the  driver  ;  Mrs.  Vaughan,  Cecilia,  and  Rachel 
made  the  party  within. 

And  a  very  jolly  party  they  were. 

Arrived  at  the  eagle  and  the  unicorn,  as  Cecilia  in- 
sisted on  calling  the  antiquities,  the  party  broke  up  into 
groups,  trios,  and  couples,  as  had  been  foreordained. 
Cecilia  found  friends  among  the  McKenzies,  Mrs. 
Vaughan  was  tired  with  her  ride  and  established  herself 
under  her  umbrella,  just  where  the  eagle's  beak  sheltered 
her  from  the  wind,  and  Mr.  Poore  took  Rachel  down 
the  ravine  to  show  her  the  vista  down  the  lake  and  the 
distant  prairie. 

"  Mrs.  Vaughan  is  a  pleasant  person,"  said  he,  "  and 
their  house  is  charming.  I  do  not  remember  them  at 
Ilitchin." 

"  Oh,  no,  they  are  not  New  Hampshire  people.  I 
met  Cecilia  at  school." 

"  You  are  here  for  the  summer  ?" 

"Yes,"  said  she,  "Cecilia  and  I  have  been  insepa- 
rable at  school,  and  we  could  not  bear  to  give  it  up  even 
when  we  came  to  an  end." 

"  I  remember  just  that  feeling,"  said  he.  "  At  my 
class-supper— that  means  the  end,  you  know— we  stood 
together  in  the  college  campus  to  see  the  sun  rise  ;  we 
shook  hands  and  said  '  good-by  ;'  and,  Miss  Finley,  of 
the  twenty  men  I  knew  best,  I  have  not  seen  five  from 
that  day  to  this." 

"  And  men  have  better. chances  to  travel  than  women. " 


104  TIIE   FORTUNES    OF    JIACI1EL. 

"  Had.  Yes,  perhaps  they  have.  Only  when  a 
young  man  travels  he  travels  with  a  hat  full  of  duties. 
He  must  see  this  man,  he  must  consult  that  firm.  His 
employers  will  not  like  to  find  that  he  staid  two  days  in 
Arcadia  because  Jim  Johnson  had  married  his  pretty 
wife  there. " 

Rachel  laughed.  '"  But  then  the  man  can  leave  the 
train  and  take  the  next.  lie  can  just  shake  hands  with 
Jim  Johnson  and  make  up  his  employer's  time  by  riding 
all  night.  Women  are  much  more  tied  to  the  pro- 
gramme. ' ' 

"  I  have  thought  of  that.  It  must  be  a  bore  to  have 
your  route  and  all  planned  out  for  you  ;  to  have  the  man 
come  in  and  say,  '  We  shall  take  the  nine  forty,'  so 
grandly,  without  even  telling  you  why." 

"  Cecilia  and  I  wanted  very  much  to  stay  over  a  train 
in  Rochester.  But  the  things  were  checked  through, 
and  of  course  we  must  follow  our  baggage." 

"  As  when  you  read  history  it  says,  '  He  was  encum- 
bered by  his  baggage  train.'  What  would  these  buffalo 
and  eagle  makers  say  to  us  tramps  desecrating  their 
sacred  shrines  ?' ' 

"  Have  you  the  slightest  faith  in  the  shrines  ?"  asked 
Rachel,  who,  like  him,  had  heard  the  professor's  lecture. 

Mr.  Poore  laughed  and  made  a  mock  gesture  "of 
terror.  "  We  should  not  be  permitted  to  ride  home 
with  them  if  we  talked  treason.  It  all  looks  very  well 
on  the  map.  I  guess  it  is  all  right." 

"  Any  way,"  said  she,  "  we  will  fight  for  our  anti- 
quities to  the  last  drop  of  our  blood.  You  should  have 
heard  me  defend  the  Gothic  architecture  of  Chicago  last 
week." 

"  The  Gothic  architecture  of  Chicago  !  Who  at- 
tacked it  ?" 


LAKE   CONSTANCE.  li  ,, 

"  Oh,  a  grand  English  lady  whom  wo  had  here.  Her 
husband  is  professor  of  applied  bad  manners  in  Oxford, 
I  believe.  She  said  that  there  were  churches  in  Chicago 
where  two  parts  were  fifty  years  different  from  each 
other." 

"What  did  you  tell  her?" 

"I  wanted  to  tell  her  that  she  should  have  staid  at 
home." 

"  But,  Miss  Finley,  are  not  you  an  English  girl  2" 

"All  the  more  have  I  a  right  to  take  down  my  coun- 
trywomen. Yes,  I  am  an  English  girl,  but  I  believe 
that  makes  me  a  more  terrible  Yankee." 

"  You  are  not  so  very  terrible,"  said  he. 

"  Take  care,  Mr.  Poorc,  you  do  not  know  me.  Xow 
tell  me  about  Kuth  Cordis.  Where  is  she  ?  She  did 
not  stay  long  in  Ilitchin.  Alas  !  nobody  does." 

"  You  know  what  Mr.  Webster  said  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, that  it  was  a  good  place  to  move  from." 

"  Shame  on  him  !  How  gladly  would  I  have  spent 
my  life  in  Ilitchin." 

"  With  an  occasional  paddle  in  Lake  Constance  ?" 

And  so  they  chattered  on,  the  girl  perfectly  uncon- 
scious of  his  deep-seated  purpose,  he  perfectly  willing  to 
enjoy  the  hour  and  to  bide  his  time.  Why  there  were 
not  forty  rivals  eager  to  part  him  from  this  lovely  girl, 
whom  he  believed  to  be  a  noble  woman,  he  could  not 
conceive.  As,  by  good  fortune,  there  were  none,  ho 
could  enjoy  his  afternoon,  and  he  need  not  give  her  an  in- 
stant's alarm,  and  might  work  his  way  along  to  that  easy 
familiarity  of  intercourse  in  which  all  things  are  possi- 
ble. 

Happy  Thomas  Poore  ! 

Unconscious  Rachel  Finley  ! 

The  expedition  returned  with  perfect  succcs.s.     What 


10G  THE    FORTUNES   OF   RACHEL. 

was  the  report  at  the  hotel  need  not  here  be  told,  but  as 
the  cottage  party  all  sat  late  over  one  of  Mrs.  Yaughan's 
luxurious  teas,  they  agreed  unanimously  tjiat  never  had 
anybody  planned  anything  which  had  come  off  more 
perfectly. 

And  so  Tom  Poore  won  his  spurs  in  the  little  com- 
pany at  Lake  Constance,  and  was  recognized  as  being  by 
divine  right  one  of  the  honorable  self -appointed  company 
of  those  who  suggest  and  carry  out  the  amusements  of 
mankind.  He  was  well  fitted  for  this  service.  He  was 
handsome,  good-tempered,  and  rich.  He  had  good  ex- 
ecutive capacity  and  did  not  care  to  be  praised.  He  was 
perfectly  willing  to  make  a  plan,  and  then  to  have  some- 
body else  take  all  the  credit  of  it,  or,  for  that  matter,  to 
have  forty  people  do  so.  At  the  present  moment  ho 
had  one  very  distinct  purpose  in  his  own  mind.  He 
wanted,  before  winter,  to  make  use  of  the  little  gold  ring 
which  lay  hidden  in  the  inner  pocket  of  his  portemonnaie. 
But  he  knew  that  this  charming  woman  did  not  like  him 
as  much  as  he  liked  her.  Nay,  he  was  no  fool,  and  he 
knew  there  was  no  reason  why  she  should.  He  had 
made  his  plan — made  it  too  carefully  perhaps.  For  this 
was  not  a  matter  of  the  buying  of  a  factory  or  of  the 
controlling  of  a  market.  But  none  the  less  Tom  had 
made  it.  And  as  he  thought  it  wTas  a  good  plan  he 
meant  to  carry  it  through.  Certainly  at  Lake  Constance 
fortune  still  favored  the  brave. 

Before  long  he  had  announced  in  the  hotel  to  some 
one  of  his  familiars,  that  instead  of  a  week  he  meant  to 
spend  the  rest  of  the  summer  at  Constance,  and  he  had 
had  his  traps  moved  down  into  a  corner  room.  Then 
his  mail  began  to  come.  It  was  just  the  least  bit  odd  to 
be  the  mail  of  a  business  man.  It  had  the  queerest 
number  of  English  and  French  journals  j  as  it  happened 


LAKE  CONSTANCE.  107 

it  had  one  or  two  which  Miss  Yaughan  or  Rachel  had 
expressed  a  curiosity  about.  Tom  had  boldly  said  that 
they  were  sent  regularly  to  him  and  that  he  would  order 
them  from  New  York.  Regularly  sent  they  were  in  a 
sense,  for  such  things  are  regularly  sent  from  Europe  for 
any  one  who  wants  them  in  America.  Tom,  in  this  in- 
stance, was  the  man  who  wanted  them.  And  when  the 
Rundschau  appeared  at  Rachel's  breakfast  two  days 
after  she  had  alluded  to  it,  it  never  occurred  to  her  that 
the  order  for  it  danced  over  the  wire  to  New  York,  before 
she  was  asleep,  on  the  night  when  they  were  all  talking 
on  the  piazza.  In  many  such  ways  Tom  "Poore  found  it 
in  his  power  to  be  of  use  to  the  little  company  at 
Lake  Constance. 

Mrs.  Yaughan  took  to  him  almost  from  the  beginning. 
He  was  just  what  her  establishment  needed,  in  the 
hierarchies  of  the  social  order  of  the  place.  For  her 
husband  was  far  too  lazy  to  keep  the  run  of  what  was 
going  on,  and  Tom  was  too  young.  Tom  cared  for 
nothing  but  riding  his  pony,  and  fishing,  and  an  oc- 
casional baseball  match.  But  with  Mr.  Poore  she  was 
quite  safe.  And  -now,  if  the  Emperor  of  Brazil  should 
come  to  spend  a  couple  of  days  with  Mrs.  Harris,  why 
the  Yaughans  would  be  able  to  do  the  right  thing  ;  they 
would  not  let  him  come  and  go  without  any  notice,  as 
they  did  the  Queen  of  Honolulu.  In  that  case  the 
Queen  had  proved  to  be  a  humbug,  as  Mr.  Yaughan 
always  reminded  his  wife.  But  she  might  have  been 
genuine.  And  Mrs.  Yaughan  was  far  too  sincere  in  her 
hospitality,  to  be  willing  to  have  even  the  Emperor  of 
Brazil  escape  her. 

For  poor  tired  Rachel,  shocked  through  and  through, 
more  than  her  English  nature  wholly  showed,  by  the 
calamity  which  had  robbed  her  of  a  mother  for  a  second 


108  THE    FORTUNES    OF    RACHEL. 

time,  the  Constance  life  was  the  best  tonic  that  could 
have  been  devised. 

"  M y  dear  child,*'  said  Mrs.  Vaughan,  "  you  are  to 
forget  that  you  have  a  duty." 

"  Oh,  indeed,  Mrs.  Vauglian,  that  will  be  hard.  You 
could  let  me  sit  on  a  cushion  if  you  had  a  seam  you 
wanted  me  to  sew  ?" 

"  Not  a  seam  nor  a  stitch  ;  I  even  insisted  on  it  that 
the  sewing  machines  should  rest.  I  knew  they  would 
not  sulk  so  badly  in  the  fall.  The  strawberries  you  shall 
have  as  long  as  they  last.  The  sugar  and  the  cream  we 
are  sure  of  for  the  whole  summer,  if  the  cows  do  not  die. 
And  Mr.  Pancoast  tells  me  that  there  are  seven  of 
them." 

And  Rachel  did  a  good  deal  as  she  was  told.  She 
helped  Mrs.  Vauglian  to  wash  her  nicest  glass  and  porce- 
lain in  the  morning— pet  extravagancies,  she  said,  which 
she  would  no  more  trust  to  a  servant's  care  than  she 
would  trust  the  washing  of  a  baby.  Then  it  was,  after  a 
little,  Rachel  who  rearranged  the  flowers.  She  made  Tom 
bring  her  wild  flowers,  and  that  droll  old  Donald  from 
the  greenhouse  gave  her  his  orders,  and  suffered  himself 
to  be  twisted  round  her  finger.  If  Rachel  fancied  they 
would  like  to  have  her  read  aloud,  she  staid  and  read. 
But  if  the  womankind  dropped  into  letter-writing,  she 
would  be  off  alone  in  her  canoe.  She  sunned  herself  in 
the  sun,  she  aired  herself  in  the  shade,  she  thought  a 
great  deal,  she  read  a  little,  she  pretended  to  read  more. 
She  gained  strength,  and,  without  knowing  it,  gained 
spirit,  and  was  much  better  prepared  for  the  battle  of 
life,  wherever  battle  might  be  delivered,  or  whenever  it 
might  come. 

Tom  Poore  said  he  had  disinterred  at  the  hotel  a 
dried-up  little  Professor  Radetsky 


LAKK    COXSTAXCE.  109 

plished  pianist,  and  who  had  that  curious  Polish  or  KILS- 
sian  philanthropy,  that  he  was  never  really  happy  unless 
when  he  saw  young  people  dancing  to  the  music  of  his 
own  hands. 

This  was  Tom's  rather  rosy  account  of  the  professor's 
predilections.  The  trutli  was  that  Tom  had  observed 
that,  whenever  the  ladies  danced  at  Lake  Constance,  some 
.  one  was  sacrificed  at  the  piano  for  the  others.  At  a 
suggestion  from  Tom  to  a  business  correspondent  in 
Chicago  the  professor  had  been  hunted  up.  It  was  true 
that  he  did  not  dislike  an  outing.  It  was  also  true  that 
his  delight  was  playing  the  piano.  At  Tom's  invitation 
and  expense,  therefore,  he  was  now  spending  the  rest  of 
the  summer  at  Lake  Constance.  But  Tom  would  have 
blown  his  brains  out  had  he  revealed  this  arrangement  to 
any  one,  and  this  the  professor,  who,  for  that  matter,  was 
not  in  the  least  talkative,  knew  perfectly  well. 

One  evening  Mrs.  Vaughan  had  asked  everybody  to 
ask  everybody  to  come  round  to  her  house  with  a  view 
to  dancing.  And  among  the  children  of  light  came  the 
professor  also.  They  were  all  resting  after  a  dance,  and 
the  professor  was  playing  some  rather  weird  strain,  per- 
haps of  his  own — perhaps  a  Hungarian  gypsy  dance. 

"  Yes,"  said  Rachel,  "  there  is  no  use  in  wishing,  but 
I  wish  I  could  play  one  half  as  well  as  he  does,  and  liked 
to  teach  other  people  only  one  quarter  part  as  well  as  he 
says  he  does.  I  have  been  talking  to  him  while  I  ate 
that  sherbet.  I  declare  I  envy  a  man  who  is  so  well 
pleased  with  what  he  has  to  do." 

"  And  what  should  you  do  if  you  had  these  gifts  and 
graces  ?"  asked  Tom  Poore,  in  reply. 

"  Oh,  then  my  destiny  would  be  clear.  I  should  go 
to  some  new-fledged  Chicago,  some  Tadmor  in  the 
wilderness,  howling  for  a  music  teacher  ;  I  should  hang 


110  THE    FORTUXES    OF    RACHEL. 

up  what  yon  would  call  my  shingle  ;  I  should  be  the 
Professor  Badeteky  of  that  rising  community. 

"  On  Sundays  I  should  play  '  Hebron,'  and  '  Duke 
Street,'  and  '  Peterborough,'  for  the  people  to  sing  by, 
on  the  organ,  and  with  terrible  thunderings  I  should  play 
the  Hallelujah  Chorus  for  a  voluntary  when  Easter  came 
round. 

"  Oh,  yes,  I  should  then  have  a  vocation." 

"  You  speak  as  if  you  had  none  now,"  said  Tom 
Poore,  afraid  of  his  own  courage,  but  also  afraid  to  ask 
questions. 

"  Ah  me  !  you  are  quite  right.  It  is  my  avocation  to 
be  a  fine  lady  at  Mrs.  Yaughan's.  It  is  a  very  pleasant 
avocation  to  paddle  my  dear  little  birch.  Nay,  for  an 
avocation,  I  was  willing  yesterday  to  stitch  up  that  awful 
hole  in  the  bark  and  to  anoint  it  with  wax  and  tar  and  to 
clap  on  a  bit  of  bed-ticking.  But  no  one  will  hire  me 
to  do  that  for  eight  hours  a  day,  three  hundred  and 
twelve  days  in  the  year.  There  are  not  so  many  canoes 
in  the  Northwest  as  I  could  mend  in  that  time.  It  is  a 
good  business,  but,  as  I  observe  you  men  of  affairs  say, 
there  is  not  enough  to  pay." 

"  And  what  is  your  vocation  to  be,  failing  a  rival  to 
poor  Eadetsky,  and  where  is  it  to  be  exercised  ?" 

"  That  depends,"  said  the  girl,  trying  to  smile  ;  but 
Tom  Poore  saw,  to  his  dismay,  that  he  had  annoyed  her. 
And  she,  who  did  not  mean  to  make  a  scene,  was  more 
annoyed  that  he  knew  she  was  annoyed  ;  so  she  rallied 
herself  by  an  effort  and  went  on  quite  equably  : 

"  The  truth  is  that  in  my  heart  of  hearts  I  know  I  shall 
not  teach  anything  else  better  than  I  shall  teach  music. 
I  failed  miserably  in  my  Sunday-school  teaching.  It  is 
in  Sunday-school  teaching,  the  most  critical  of  all,  that 
boys  and  girls  are  put  in  as  apprentices." 


I.AKI-    CONSTANCE.  HI 

"  Tliat  is  because  it  is  so  easy  for  some  people  to  make 
other  people  good,"  said  Tom  Poore,  recovering  his 
usual  courage. 

"  Yes  or  no,  as  it  happens.  I  always  begin  with  a 
large  class,  summoned  by  some  skilful  teacher  who  pre- 
ceded me.  The  next  week  half  have  fled  ;  the  next 
week  it  storms  furiously,  and  there  are  none  ;  another 
week  two  come  ;  and  the  last  Sunday  there  is  one  little 
girl,  who  says  meekly  that  she  should  like  to  sit  with  the 
others." 

Tom  so  wished  that  he  dared  say  that  he  should  like  to 
be  the  one  left  in  her  class,  but  he  had  not  come  quite  to 
that  point  of  audacity.  There  was,  however,  a  mo- 
ment's pause,  and  then  he  did  say — that  he  might  say 
something — 

"  After  all,  such  things  are  generally  determined  for 
us.  I  am  a  manufacturer  to-.day  instead  of  being  a 
lieutenant  in  the  navy,  because  my  older  brother's  nose 
bled  on  his  way  to  school." 

"  Perhaps  they  are  directed  for  us,"  said  Rachel. 
"  But  for  women  the  tyranny  is  that  we  are  all  made 
teachers  whether  we  teach  well  or  ill.  At  bottom  that  is 
what  all  this  howling  about  woman's  rights  comes  to. 
"We  want  more  range  of  choice.  But  I  am  talking  you 
out  of  all  patience.  Mr.  Kadetsky  finished  his  sherbet 
long  ago. " 

Why  did  not  Tom  Poore  say  to  her  then  that  there 
was  one  other  choice  open  to  her  ?  Why  did  he  not  tell 
her  to  come  and  reign  over  him  and  his,  as  born  and 
elected  and  sovereign  queen  ?  He  asked  himself  that 
question  many  times  that  night  as  he  walked  home  and 
after  he  was  in  bed,  and  answered  it  in  many  ways. 

The  real  answer  was  that  he  was  afraid.  "  Be  bold, 
be  bold,  be  not  too  bold,"  he  said,  as  he  wound  his 


112  THE    FOHTUXES    OF    RAC.'HF.L. 

watch  tliat  night.  If  Rachel  Finley  had  not  favored  this 
proposal  and  had  told  him  not  to  follow  this  plan 
further,  his  vocation  in  Lake  Constance  would  have  been 
at  an  end.  His  chance  might  be  better,  he  knew  in  his 
heart,  if  he  waited  longer  than  it  was  now. 

For  he  saw  the  truth  with  a  painful  modesty  for  which 
few  men  or  women  gave  Tom  Poore  credit.  The  truth 
was  that  while  Rachel  was  pleasant  and  "nice,"  good- 
natured,  nay  agreeable,  with  him  whenever  and  wherever 
he  joined  her,  she  was  not  in  any  way  specially  gracious 
to  him.  Not  in  the  inclination  of  an  eyelash  !  Not  in 
the  movement  of  her  little  finger  !  If  they  were  all  on 
the  plank,  ready  to  han^  the  ladies  from  the  boat,  she 
gave  her  hand  just  as  readily  to  Crehore,  or  Bu  instead, 
or  Clarke,  as  she  did  to  Poore  himself.  Not  more 
readily,  there  was  that  comfort.  But  actually  you  might 
think  all  these  bearded  men  were  a  string  of  school-girls, 
for  all  the  distinction  which  this  queen  of  women  made 
among  them. 

"  Right  or  not,"  said  Tom  Poore,  as  he  tumbled  into 
bed,  not  to  sleep  for  hours,  "  what  is  done  is  done,  and 
what  is  undone  is  not  done."  And  the  end  of  that 
sleeplessness  was  simply  the  determination  again  made, 
that  he  would  stretch  his  arm  far  and  wide  to  provide 
her  with  anything  for  which  she  expressed  a  wish  ;  he 
would  watch  these  last  weeks  of  Lake  Constance,  and 
make  them  pass  as  brightly  for  her  as  might  be  ;  he 
would  be  the  guardian  genius,  the  slave  of  the  lamp,  who 
should  care  for  her  path  and  her  rest.  And  perhaps  she 
would  find  out  that  it  was  her  vocation  to  trust  herself 
to  such  a  friend. 

And  this  Tom  Poore  did.  The  Rundschau,  and  the 
Comhitti  and  L1  Art  lay  on  Mrs.  Yaughan's  tables. 
Dr.  Lapham's  treatise  on  the  buffalo  mounds  appeared 


LAKE   CONSTANCE.  113 

from  Milwaukee.  Betliam  Kint,  the  queer  outlaw, 
turned  up  every  second  day  on  the  Vaughans'  piazza, 
with  fresh  prairie  flowers.  The  ladies  all  gathered  to 
welcome  him.  But  if  Rachel  Finley  had  not  been  there 
Betham  would  never  have  left  his  accustomed  ways. 
The  outside  of  Rachel's  life  was  certainly  well  provided 
for  by  a  friend  who  kept  himself  sometimes  invisible. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

PARTING. 

"  Farewell  again  !  and  yet 

Must  it  indeed  be  so,  and  on  this  shore 
Shall  yon  and  I  no  more 
Together  see  the  sun  of  summer  set  ?" 

Barry  Cornwall. 

ALL  tlie  same,  September  would  come.  Betham 
Kint's  flowers  were  more  and  more  asterisk  and  golden- 
roddy.  The  evenings  were  too  cold  for  the  boats,  even 
under  the  bravest  and  most  romantic  admirals.  What 
was  more  to  the  point,  the  grain  of  the  country  began  to 
move.  America  began  to  give  to  half  a  waiting  world 
its  daily  bread.  And  these  princes  from  Milwaukee, 
from  Toledo,  and  from  Chicago,  who,  for  all  August,  had 
been  pretending  they  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  respond  to 
the  fooleries  of  wives  and  daughters,  began  to  go  about 
that  great  business  of  the  feeding.  It  would  be 
announced  that  Mr.  Calrow  had  had  a  despatch  from  his 
head  clerk  :  Mr.  Armitage  had  taken  the  night  express  : 
Mr.  Wells  had  sent  a  long  message,  but  Mrs.  Wells  ex- 
pected that  they  must  all  go  to-morrow. 

The  end  had  come. 

"  It  is  very  provoking,  Miss  Finley,"said  Tom  Poore, 
"  and  I  must  seem  to  you  very  stupid.  But  Christern 
has  mistaken  my  despatch,  or  else  1  made  it  too  short. 
He  has  sent  me  Moritz's  short  stories,  as  I  bade  him,  but 
he  has  sent  them  in  the  Hungarian  original.  Perhaps 


PARTING.  115 

you  read  that  also.  But  what  1  promised  you  was  the 
German. ' ' 

"  Promised  !"  said  Rachel,  frightened.  "  You  prom- 
ised nothing.  I  thought  you  said  you  had  them.  Why, 
Mr.  Poore,  you  know  1  should  never  have  dreamed  of 
your  buying  them." 

It  was  true  that  Tom  Poore  had  said  he  had  them,  if 
the  English  language  was  able  to  express  that  idea.  But 
this  was  in  Tom's  general  notion,  that  whatever  was  in 
New  York  was  his,  "  to  the  extent  of  sixpence,"  as  Mr. 
Carlyle  well  says.  lie  would  not  have  said  that  he 
owned  Mrs.  Stewart's  palace  or  the  Astor  Library,  but 
he  was  apt  to  think  that  what  was  for  sale  at  retail,  in 
Broadway  or  elsewhere  in  New  York,  was  kept  in  the 
warehouses  subject  to  his  order.  And  so  indeed  it  was. 

Poor  simple  Rachel  had  her  eyes  a  little  opened  by 
this  incident  of  the  Hungarian  novels,  and  so  she  was 
rather  on  her  guard  when  Mr.  Poore  went  on  to  say  : 

"  Of  course,  I  can  have  them  from  Berlin  in  a  few 
weeks.  Tell  me  your  address,  and  I  will  send  them  to 
you  by  post." 

You  are  too  fast,  Mr.  Thomas  Poore.  This  young 
woman  has  seen  quite  too  much  at  Kearsarge  of  the  cor- 
respondence of  girls  with  what  is  called,  in  the  most  vul- 
gar of  vulgar  phrases,  "gentlemen  friends."  She  was 
not  going  to  be  betrayed  into  any  such  bother. 

"  If  I  knew  my  address,  Mr.  Poore,  I  could  tell  you. 
But  I  may  be  in  Alaska,  I  may  be  in  Cienfuegos,  I  may 
be  in  Boothia  Felix.  It  is  just  as  the  one  of  these  places 
or  another  needs  a  teacher  with  my  exact  accomplish- 
ments— a  girl  who  can  teach  addition  but  not  subtrac- 
tion, is  strong  in  multiplication  but  doubtful  about  the 
rule  of  three.  There  is  room  somewhere,  if  one  only 
knew  where." 


11G  THE   FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

And  Mr.  Poore  saw  that  she  did  not  mean  to  have 
him  address  any  short  notes  to  her,  growing,  by  gradual 
evolution,  into  long  letters. 

The  conversation  would  not  lead  up  as  he  had  meant 
it  should.  And  once  more  his  intrepidity  gave  way. 

In  truth,  Rachel's  name  was  in  two  "  Teachers' 
Bureaus."  These  are  places  where  on  one  side  of  the 
room  are  pigeon-holes  full  of  letters  from  mothers  who 
want  governesses,  and  colleges  which  want  professors, 
and  school  committees  who  want  schoolmasters  or 
schoolmistresses,  while  the  other  side  of  the  room  has  a 
rack,  quite  as  large,  full  of  the  letters  of  men  and  women 
who  wish  to  be  employed  in  such  various  services. 
These  letters  are  accompanied  by  the  "  recommenda- 
tions" of  the  applicants,  and  there  is  a  photographic 
portrait  of  each  applicant  in  the  envelope  with  his  recom- 
mendation. Ah  me  !  if  all  the  committees  had  seen 
KachePs  pretty  photograph,  she  would  have  had  no  lack 
of  applications. 

At  last  the  fatal  Friday  came  on  which  the  whole 
Vaughan  party  were  to  abandon  the  post  as  quietly  as 
they  might,  and  steal  away  to  New  Altoona.  At  this 
moment  Rachel  had  in  hand  a  promise  from  Miss  Dud- 
ley that  she  might  rely  on  the  next  assistant's  vacancy  at 
Ivearsarge.  She  had  also  the  refusal,  for  two  days  more, 
of  the  post  of  first  assistant  in  the  Seven  Oaks  Academy 
of  Cuthbert  County,  Arkansas  ;  and,  lastly,  if  she 
wanted  to  take  the  district  school  in  Hitchin,  where  she 
had  submitted  to  Miss  Hannah  Valentine's  loving 
sceptre,  dear  Mr.  Tyndale  held  that  open  for  her  till  the 
15th  of  November. 

But  neither  of  these  applications  was  to  be  accepted. 

Quite  to  Rachel's  surprise,  on  Thursday  evening,  Mr. 
Hutchinson,  whose  house  -was  next  to  the  Yaughans', 


PARTING.  117 

asked  her  to  coine  out  on  the  piazza  with  him  before  he 
finished  his  farewell  call. 

"  Miss  Finley,  my  wife  tells  me  that  there  is  talk  of 
your  going  to  Arkansas  to  teacli  ?" 

"  I  was  asking  Mrs.  Hutchinson  about  Arkansas.  I 
am  offered  a  place  in  a  school  there." 

"  Do  you  mind  telling  me  what  they  will  pay  you  ?" 

"  Oh,  not  at  all,"  said  Each  el,  though  she  was  a  little 
surprised  ;  for  Mr.  Hutchinson  seldom  came  from  Chi- 
cago, and  she  supposed  he  hardly  knew  her  by  name 
in  the  crowd  of  young  visitors  at  all  the  houses.  "  They 
offer  for  the  first  year  three  hundred  dollars,  with  my 
board  and  washing. "  Then  she  added,  with  a  laugh  a 
little  forced,  "  If  the  school  fills  up,  I  am  to  have  more 
another  year,  if  I  stay." 

"  Miss  Finley,  I  want  an  assistant  book-keeper  in  our 
dressmaking  department.  You  would  be  on  duty  from 
nine  till  four,  and  your  lunch  will  be  sent  up  from  the 
kitchen.  We  should  pay  you  eight  hundred  and  thirty- 
two  dollars  a  year,  and  you  may  take  two  outings,  of  a 
week  each,  when  you  wish.  Miss  Stoddard,  the  head 
book-keeper,  is  a  fool,  but  she  understands  her  business, 
and  you  need  not  quarrel  with  her  unless  You  want 
to." 

Mr.  Ilutchinson  was  taciturn  when  he  spoke  to  ladies, 
and  for  him  this  was  a  very  long  address.  Eachel  was 
thrown  off  her  guard.  First  of  all,  she  said,  "  Some 
Frenchman  says  that  if  you  are  more  than  thirty  your- 
self, it  is  quite  convenient  to  have  a  fool  for  a  chief." 

Mr.  Ilutchinson  smiled,  well  pleased.  But  Eachel 
went  on  :  "  You  wholly  mistake  me.  Your  wife  is  so 
good  a  man  of  business  that  you  think  we  all  are  likelier. 
!Now,  in  fact,  I  know  nothing  of  book-keeping  ;  I  hardly 
know  the  difference  between  a  cash  book  and  a  ledger." 


118  THE    FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

"  As  to  that,"  said  Mr.  Hutcliinson,  "  Miss  Stoddard 
knows  too  much.  She  is  so  scientific  that  she  keeps  me 
in  hot  water  all  the  time.  Yon  can  write  a  good  letter, 
and  you  can  divide  two  hundred  and  sixty-seven  by 
eleven.  That  is  all  I  want.  I  saw  your  letter  to  my 
wife  yesterday  about  the  book  club. 

"  If  you  please,  it  is  my  business  to  judge  of  the 
qualifications  of  the  people  I  employ.  I  have  told  you 
what  the  salary  is,  and  what  the  outings  are,  and  you 
have  supposed  you  knew  what  the  duties  were.  In  this 
you  were  mistaken." 

Rachel  was  snubbed,  and  knew  she  was,  and  said  noth- 
ing. 

"Let  me  tell  you,"  said  Mr.  Ilutchinson,  girding 
himself  up  with  an  effort.  "  I  want  somebody  in  those 
rooms  to  keep  the  run  of  those  girls.  There  are  ninety- 
six  of  them  to-day,  there  may  be  a  hundred  and  twenty- 
live  next  week.  There  will  be  three  hundred  if  Mr. 
Tileston  say  so  ;  or  if  he  say  so  they  would  come  down 
to  fifty.  Now,  I  want  somebody  to  see  to  them.  Xot  to 
their  sewing,  that  is  Miss  Fillebrown's  lookout  ;  not  to 
their  wages,  that  Miss  Stoddard  will  see  to,  and,  as  I 
have  said,  will  see  to  only  too  well. 

"  Miss  Finley,  if  I  should  tell  these  girls  that  you  were 
put  there  to  protect  them  against  Miss  Stoddard,  and 
against  Miss  Fillebrowii,  and  against  themselves,  and 
against  each  other,  you  would  not  be  able  to  touch  one 
of  them  with  a  ten-foot  pole.  I  mean  they  would  be  so 
shy  of  you.  People  never  want  to  be  helped  officially  by 
a  person  appointed  to  help  them.  But  if  you  are  there, 
rated  as  an  'assistant  book-keeper,'  these  girls  will 
bring  you  their  grievances.  If  you  are  not  a  fool — and  I 
think  you  are  not — you  will  gain  their  confidence  very 
fast,  and  I  shall  find  that  I  am  not  killing  onp  girl  with- 


PARTING .  11{) 

out  meaning  to,  and  also  that  I  am  not  keeping  another 
girl  who  is  no  good  to  me,  or  disgracing  me. 

"  Miss  Finlej,  my  wife  has  done  no  end  of  good  to 
these  girls,  who  are  not  a  bad  set  by  nature  ;  but  Mrs. 
Ilutchinson  cannot  do  everything." 

Mr.  Hutchinson  was  astonished  at  the  length  of  his 
own  harangue. 

"Let  me  talk  with  Mrs.  Hutchinson,"  said  Rachel. 
"  If  she  thinks  I  can  do  this  thing,  I  will  gladly  try.  I 
do  not  teach  well,  and  I  should  be  sorry  to  disappoint 
those  Arkansas  trustees  by  a  failure.1" 

So  Rachel  took  Mrs.  Ilutchinson  into  the  breakfast- 
room,  and  they  had  a  long  conference. 

Things  ended  in  her  going  to  Chicago,  where  she  was 
in  fact  rated  as  "  assistant  book-keeper."  And  the 
various  bureaus  of  education  will  have,  I  suppose,  her 
photograph  to  the  latest  day. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THOMAS'S    CONCERT. 

"  The  many  rend  the  sky  with  loud  applause  ; 
Love  lost  his  crown,  and  Music  lost  the  cause. " 

Dryden  (revised). 

HER  life  in  Chicago  was,  of  course,  as  different  from 
life  at  Lake  Constance  as  was  life  in  the  Gloucester  fish- 
ing-smack from  life  at  her  Aunt  Ann's.  The  first  fort- 
night was  clear  sheer  wretchedness.  A  new  boarding- 
house,  selected'by  Miss  Stoddard  to  fit  her  own  tastes — and 
those  tastes  were  very  unlike  Rachel's  —  this  was 
wretchedness  double  refined  to  a  girl  who  had  lived 
either  at  Kearsarge  or  at  Aunt  Lois's.  The  mere  vul- 
garity and  pretence  of  the  place  drove  her  wild.  Her 
work  in  the  half  counting-room,  half  office,  between  a 
jealous  chief  who  feared  she  was  to  be  ousted,  and  a  pack 
of  a  hundred  girls,  who  did  not  know  her  or  care  for 
her,  was  anything  but  simple,  or,  indeed,  intelligible. 

"  Do  not  come  to  me  for  orders,''  said  Mr.  Hutchinson 
more  than  once  in  substance.  "  I  do  not  know  myself 
how  you  are  to  do  it.  I  only  know  that  you  are  to  be  a 
friend  to  these  girls  and  supply  brains  where  they  are 
needed.  Find  out  your  own  way." 

After  one  day  of  signal  perplexity,  in  which  she  had 
wished  herself  in  Arkansas  fifty  times,  Rachel  returned 
at  night,  tired  to  death,  to  the  tawdry  splendors  of  what 
was  called  her  home,  to  meet  at  the  door  a  grinning 


THOMAS'S   COXCEUT.  121 

black  girl,  who  said  slie  had  a  card  for  her — "  a  gentle- 
man bad  called,  miss."  In  the  two  weeks  of  Rachel'* 
stay  here  this  was  the  first  visit  she  had  received  from 
any  person. 

She  took  the  card  with  some  curiosity,  therefore, 
to  find  it  was  Mr.  Thomas  Poore  who  had  visited 
her. 

He  had  written  with  his  pencil  that  lie  would  call 
again  at  seven. 

And  at  seven  Rachel  had  to  receive  him,  in  the  back 
parlor.  Seven  other  people  were  present  in  that  room 
and  four  in  the  other.  The  conversation  of  all  the 
eleven  .fell  into  silence,  lest  they  should  lose  any  word  of 
what  passed  between  the  new  boarder  and  the  dis- 
tinguished stranger. 

Tom  Poore  was  equal  to  the  emergency,  as  to  most 
emergencies.  His  conversation  might  have  been  printed 
in  the  Chicago  Times  of  the  next  morning,  and  very 
probably  was.  It  was  on  the  most  general  themes — the 
health  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Vaughan,  the  fortunes  of  }'oung 
Walter  Ilutchinson,  the  probable  bankruptcy  of  the 
hotel-keeper  ;  and,  at  last,  even  the  ranks  of  the  listeners 
found  the  conversation  unprofitable,  and  they  began  to 
retire  one  to  his  room  and  another  to  her  newspaper. 
"When  (he  very  last  eavesdropper  had  thus  departed,  Tom 
Poore  said  quietly  to  Rachel  : 

"  I  ventured  to  call  so  early,  on  my  way  to  my  cousins', 
to  ask  if  you  would  not  join  our  party  to  Thomas's  Con- 
cert. Mrs.  Scroop  is  going  and  Mrs.  Alderney.  I  have 
four  tickets  ;  will  you  not  use  one  ?" 

"I  had  so  wanted  to  go,"  said  Rachel,  "  and  I  had 
no  courage  to  go  alone.  Yes,  I  will  go  so  gladly.  You 
are  very  kind." 

And  she  ran  to  make  her  preparations.     Tom  Poore 


J^  THK    FOltTL'KKS    OF    11AOHKL. 

had  a  carriage  at  the  door,  and  in  triumph  well  concealed 
bore  his  prize  away. 

Nor  had  he  invented  Mrs.  Scroop  or  Mrs.  Alderney. 
These  rather  commonplace  people  appeared  in  the  flesh — 
in  a  good  deal  of  it,  indeed.  They  showed  no  surprise 
that  they  were  going  to  hear  the  music,  nor  gratification, 
nor  regret.  There  were  some  who  thought  they  slept 
during  the  performance.  But  who  shall  say  ?  Their 
seats,  as  it  happened,  were  one  side  of  a  passage-way,  and 
Tom  Poore  had  unbroken  conversation  with  Miss  Finley 
on  the  other. 

Poor  girl  !  she  had  not  known  how  homesick  she  was. 
She  had  not  really  known  how  intolerable  the  boarding- 
house  was,  nor  how  maddening  the  desk  and  the  work- 
room were.  And  here  was  music,  and  such  music  ;  and 
in  the  pauses,  simple  fresh  memories  of  the  lake,  and  the 
white  lilies,  and  the  canoe,  and  Cecilia,  and  summer 
days,  and  jolly  evenings.  It  was  a  bit  out  of  a  lost 
heaven. 

How  soon— too  soon — it  was  over  ! 

But  it  was  over.  And  the  carriage  was  found  again, 
and  the  cousins  were  lifted  in,  and  their  home  was 
reached,  and  they  were  lifted  out. 

And  Rachel  was  alone  in  the  carriage  with  Tom 
Poore. 

She  knew  Tom  Poore  liked  her,  but  she  did  not  dream 
of  what  was  to  come  the  very  moment  the  door  was 
closed  and  the  order  given  for  939  Montana  Street. 

"  Miss  Finley,  1  may  find  no  other  place  or  time  to 
speak  to  you.  I  have  thought  of  you  every  hour  since  I 
saw  you.  So  far  as  a  poor  blunderer  like  me  can  pray, 
I  have  prayed  God  to  take  care  of  you.  You  will  not 
let  me  write  to  you,  which  is  all  right.  And  so  I  have 
come  to  Chicago,  simply  to  say  to  you  that  man  never 


me 


THOMAS'S  CONCERT. 

loved  woman  as  I  love  you,  and  to  ask  you  to  teach 
how  to  make  you  happy.  Oh,  Miss  Finley,  if  you  knew 
how  lonely  and  desolate  this  fortnight  has  been  !  And  if 
you  knew  me,  Miss  Finley,  you  would  know  I  never 
failed  a  friend." 

Poor  Rachel  !  Had  not  the  fortnight  been  lonely  and 
desolate  to  her  ? 

Utterly  lonely  and  hopelessly  desolate  ! 

"But,  even  as  he  spoke,  Rachel  knew  in  her  heart  that 
in  all  that  desolation,  when  she  had  wished  she  were  at 
Ilitchin,  when  she  had  wondered  whether  she  ought  not 
have  gone  to  Arkansas,  when  she  had  gone  over  every 
minute  of  life  at  Kearsarge,  she  had  not  very  often  re- 
membered that  poor  Tom  Poore  was  in  the  world. 

And  now  Tom  Poore  wanted  to  marry  her. 

"  Oh,  Mr.  Poore,  you  must  not  say  this.  You  do  not 
know  me.  You  do  not  know  what  a  goose  and  fool 
lam." 

"  I  know  you  are  the  first  woman  I  ever  saw  who 
taught  me  what  that  word  means.  It  is  simply  true  that 
I  have  loved  you  as  man  never  loved  woman." 

Rachel  had  often  thought  of  marriage.  She  had 
never  thought  it  foolish  or  unmaidenly  to  think  of  mar- 
riage. She  had  a  hundred  times  found  out  that  there 
were  questions  she  could  not  answer,  and  duties  she  could 
not  perform,  and  she  had  believed  that  a  man,  were  he 
the  right  man,  could  and  would  help  her  through  such 
perplexities.  But  all  this  did  not  help  Tom  Poore. 
Rachel  summoned  up  all  such  memories,  as  the  carriage 
rattled  on,  in  two  —  three  minutes,  when  neither  of  them 
spoke.  And  the  memories  did  not  help  him. 

"  I  see  you  are  terribly  in  earnest,  Mr.  Poore.  But  it 
cannot  be  —  it  cannot  be.  -Nor  do  I  know  why  you 
thought  it  could  be.  1  am  so  ashamed  of  myself  if  I 


124  THE    FORTUNES    OF    RACHEL. 

have  deceived  yon.  But  indeed,  indeed,  I  am  wholly 
surprised.  Tell  me  you  believe  me." 

And  as  she  turned  to  look  at  him  they  passed  a  street 
lamp. 

Her  face  was  wet  with  tears. 

"  Forgive  you  !"  he  cried,  "  there  is  nothing  to  for- 
give. From  the  moment  I  first  saw  you  as  a  little  girl, 
to  this  moment,  you  have  been  a  perfect  woman.  If  you 
do  not  know  that  that  is  what  you  are,  let  me — let  me 
have  the  poor  privilege  to  tell  you."  And  then  after  a 
pause,  "  Do  not  tell  me  that  I  may  not  write  to  you, 
now?" 

"You  may  write  to  me,  Mr.  Poore — write  if  you 
please,  but,  indeed,  indeed,  it  cannot  be." 

Tom  Poore  waited  two  days.  Then  he  wrote  from 
the  Palmer  House.  It  was  a  good  letter,  too.  But 
Eachel  simply  answered  : 

RacJiel  Finley  to  Thomas  Poore. 

"  TILESTON  &  HUTCHINSON'S,  ) 
CHICAGO,  Oct.  1,  1884.  j 

"  DEAR  MR.  POORE  :  Think  no  more  of  it.  It  can- 
not be. 

"  Yours  greatly  obliged, 

"  RACHEL  FINLEY." 

And  with  such  spirit  as  she  could  Rachel  went  back  to 
Miss  Stoddard's  jealousies  and  to  the  worries  of  the 
girls. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    ANCILLARY    ESTABLISHMENT. 

"  Busied  at  the  loom,  she  wove 
An  ample  web  immortal,  such  a  work 
Transparent,  graceful,  and  of  bright  design 
As  hands  of  goddesses  alone  produce." 

Odyssey  ( Cowper). 

IT  was  in  the  next  May  that  as  Eachel  Finley  passed 
Mr.  Tileston's  door  one  morning,  he  called  her  in. 

"  Here  is  some  handsome  work,  Miss  Finley.  These 
are  portieres  for  the  club-house  of  the  Knights  of  St. 
Melice.  We  have  just  received  them  from  New  York. 
The  gentlemen  are  not  quite  ready  for  them,  and  have 
asked  me  to  display  them  here." 

Magnificent  the  portieres  were,  and  more  than  mag- 
nificent. Whoever  had  drawn  these  designs  had  been 
an  American  to  the  core.  Clearly  this  was  woman's 
designing  too.  The  tall  Indian  corn  which  shot  up  from 
the  ground  on  one,  the  play  of  the  scarlet  oak  which 
waved  down  across  the  blue  on  the  top  of  another,  the 
cluster  of  cat-tails  on  a  third,  and  the  dragon-flies  chas- 
ing each  other  on  a  fourth — all  told  of  life  in  the  open 
air.  And  the  regulated  freedom  of  the  whole,  the  in- 
difference to  what  may  be  called  convent  conventionalism, 
with  the  willingness  to  accept  the  restrictions  of  common- 
eense,  were  alike  remarkable. 

"  Mr.  Tileston,  1  have  seen  nothing  which  approached 
this.  This  is  a  new  art." 


120  THE    FORTUNES   OF   RACHEL. 

"  I  knew  you  would  say  eo,"  said  lie,  well  pleased. 
"  The  Knights  gave  me  carte  blanche,  and  I  did  not 
choose  to  disappoint  them." 

"  Will  you  tell  me  what  you  paid  for  them  ?" 

Mr.  Tileston  named  the  sum.  It  startled  Rachel,  even 
though  she  had  set  her  own  figures  high. 

At  the  end  of  fifteen  minutes  she  sent  this  note  to  Mr. 
Ilutchinson  : 

Rachel  Finley  to  Ammi  Ilutchinson. 

"  Monday  morning. 

"  DEAR  SIR  :  Have  you  seen  the  beautiful  portieres 
which  are  in  the  show-rocm  ? 

"  I  think  the  firm  should  know  that  we  have  in  the 
building  at  this  moment  women  who  can  do  work  quite 
as  fine  as  this,  and  that  the  manufacture  would  not  cost 
one  third  of  the  price  you  pay  for  them. 
"  Respectfully  yours, 

"RACHEL  FIXLKY." 

"  And  who  is  to  design  your  curtains,  Miss  Finley  ?" 
said  Mr.  Tileston  good-naturedly. 

' '  That  is  for  you  gentlemen  to  say.  Ask  Mrs.  Lang- 
hurst  to  send  you  a  design.  Ask  any  of  the  artists.  Or, 
if  you  will,  try  me." 

"  We  will  do  all,"  said  Mr.  Ilutchinson.    And  he  did. 

But  the  truth  was  that  the  professional  artists  con- 
sulted did  not  take  very  kindly  to  decorative  art. 
Rachel  did.  She  had  taken  kindly  to  it  since  she  lived 
with  Aunt  Ann,  and  had  her  first  sight  of  things  which 
have  since  been  consigned  to  the  chamber  of  horrors. 
There  were  a  dozen  magnificent  houses  in  Chicago  where 
cordial  men  and  sympathetic  women  were  glad  to  show 


THE   ANCILLARY    ESTABLISHMENT.  T>7 

her  what  had  been  done  in  other  places.  But  Rachel 
had  notions  of  her  own.  She  did  not  want  to  repeat 
other  people's  experiments,  nor  did  she. 

As  she  had  told  Mr.  Hutchinson,  ehe  had  in  the  shop 
women  who  had  been  trained  in  every  school  of  needle- 
work known.  Convent  training,  Kensington  training, 
Munich  training,  Antwerp  training,  Parisian  training — 
Rachel  had  it  all,  or  knew  where  to  send  for  it  within  a 
radius  of  two  hundred  miles.  And  of  experiment  first 
and  ot  success  afterward,  the  result  was,  that  in  a  little 
more  than  a  year  after  Rachel  accepted  doubtfully  the 
position  of  "  assistant  book-keeper,"  she  was  forewoman 
of  an  independent  establishment,  or  one  almost  indepen- 
dent of  the  original  Miss  Stoddard  room.  Mr.  Tileston, 
who  loved  his  joke,  called  it  an  "  ancillary"  establishment. 
Rachel  supervised.  She  designed.  She  ordered  her  satins 
and  her  silks.  She  found,  to  her  surprise,  that  she  was 
considered  to  have  a  good  executive  faculty.  Her  salary 
was  doubled,  and  she  was  left  quite  free  to  work  her  will 
in  what  was  justly  called  her  own  affair. 

"  Yes,"  she  said  to  Miss  Dudley,  as  she  finished  the 
letter  from  which  most  of  these  facts  have  been  col- 
lated, "  I  am,  on  the  whole,  glad  now  that  I  did  not 
wait  and  take  my  chance  to  come  to  you.  But  there 
have  been  times,  oh  how  many,  when  I  would  have 
gladly  scoured  your  knives  and  forks  both  for  a  whole 
term,  if  only  I  could  have  escaped  from  my  daily  con- 
flict. Now  I  am  queen,  so  far  as  my  little  kingdom 
goes." 

And  in  her  little  kingdom  she  reigned  and  was  happy. 
She  made  friends  among  the  workwomen,  into  whose 
pretty  work,  naturally  enough,  the  law  of  selection 
brought  some  accomplished  and  charming  people.  She 
made  friends  right  and  left  in  the  open-hearted,  hospita- 


128  THE    FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

ble,  social  circles  of  Chicago.  The  second  winter  was 
much  more  endurable  than  the  first. 

Orders  for  it  flowed  in  freely  from  the  luxurious  palace 
homes  which  are  scattered  all  through  the  great  empire 
States  of  what  was  once  the  North-west. 

As  Rachel  sat  at  her  desk  one  morning  opening  these 
letters,  she  found,  to  her  surprise,  one  marked  "  Per- 
sonal," in  a  hand  quite  unknown  to  her. 

John    Wol/  to  RacJiel  Finley. 

"  HUDDLESTOX'S  SHAFT,  April  30,  1886. 

"  MY  DEAK  Miss  FINLEY  :  It  is  only  to-day  that,  by  a 
very  happy  accident,  I  have  learned  your  address.  I  am 
able,  therefore,  to  relieve  the  mortification  which  I  have 
felt,  when  I  supposed  that  yon  thought  that  I  was  neg- 
lecting my  promise  to  you. 

"  For  I  have  not  chosen  to  believe,  what  is  perhaps  the 
more  probable,  that  you  have  forgotten  me  and  my 
promise." 

So  far  Rachel  read.  And  you  and  I,  reader,  who  have 
the  fortunate  password  by  which  we  enter  that  office- 
door  unheralded  and  unseen,  can  see  by  the  flush  on 
Rachel's  face,  very  slight  but  very  real,  that  she  had  not 
forgotten  Mr.  John  Wolff,  whatever  might  have  hap 
pened  to  his  promise. 

The  letter  goes  on  : 

"  Do  you  remember  how  suddenly  we  parted  on  the 
top  of  Mount  Kearsarge  ?  Alas  !  I  have  long  looked  back 
on  that  thunder-cloud  as  something  more  terrible  than 
we  fancied  it." 

Did  it  kill  Miss  Fiske  ?  This  question,  which  crosses 
the  reader's  mind  as  we  exhume  this  letter,  crossed 
Rachel's  as  she  read  : 


THE    ANCILLARY    ESTABLISHMENT.  129 

"  I  went  across  to  the  seminary  the  very  next  after- 
noon, but  I  learned  the  sad  news  which  had  taken  you  to 
your  old  home.  I  was  unable  therefore  to  renew  the 
conversation  which  Mr.  Dunn  broke  off  so  suddenly 
when  he  called  me  to  clean  his  kettle  for  him." 

"  Row  well  he  recollects  details  !"  said  Eachel  to  her- 
self. But  the  poor  child  was  equally  conscious  that  she 
remembered  them  just  as  well. 

"  I  took  the  liberty  to  visit  you  at  IJitchin  so  soon  as 
the  term  broke  up  at  New  Padua,  but  it  was  to  learn 
that  you  had  gone  to  Constance  the  day  before.  I 
addressed  you  at  Constance,  when  I  should  have  said 
*  Lake  Constance. '  My  letter  went  to  Boone  County, 
Kentucky,  remained  there  three  months,  and  when  I  waa 
in  England  was  returned  to  me  in  New  Padua,  where  it 
waited,  I  suppose,  three  months  more. 

"  When  I  returned  from  England  I  went  to  Lake 
Constance  to  find  a  Persepolis  of  colonnaded  hotels  in- 
habited chiefly  by  bats  and  owls. 

"  To-day  1  have  the  good  fortune  to  see  your  name  in 
the  Chicago  Times  as  designing  the  curtains  for  Mrs. 
George  Logan's  house  in  Tecumseh.  I  write,  in  the 
certainty  that  there  is  but  one  Rachel  Finley. 

"  For  I  ought  to  say  to  you,  as  soon  as  1  can,  that  in 
England  I  had  the  pleasure  of  visiting  Appleby,  where  1 
spent  two  days.  I  met  many  persons  there  who  had 
the  tenderest  recollections  of  your  father  and  mother, 
who  were  profoundly  interested  in  the  sad  story  of  the 
Baikal,  and  who,  indeed,  made  a  friend  of  me  because  I 
shared  those  experiences  with  them.  If  you  arc  Miss 
Finley  of  the  Baikal,  I  shall  have  great  pleasure  in 
sending  to  you  letters  which  I  have  lately  received  from 
Dr.  Balfour  and  from  Rev.  Mr.  Parry,  who  is  Btill  the 
vicar  at  St.  AnnV. 


130  THE    FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

"  From  Appleby  I  went  across  to  B5s!iop  Wearmouth, 
intending  to  call  upon  your  Aunt  Ann.  I  had  obtained 
her  address  from  Dr.  Balfour.  But  in  the  very  week  of 
my  arrival,  as  you  probably  know,  she  had  sunk  under  an 
acute  attack  of  pneumonia.  I  did  not  like  to  press  a 
visit  on  Miss  Sarah,  your  cousin,  and  left  the  day  after 
the  funeral. 

"  1  took  so  much  pleasure  in  my  visit  to  Appleby, 
and  have  derived  so  much  from  the  letters  I  have  had 
uince,  that  I  am  eager  to  thank  you  for  an  introduction 
which  secured  me  a  reception  so  kind  of  the  best  type  of 
English  hospitality. 

"  I  was  in  England  on  mining  business,  in  which  by 
good  luck  I  succeeded. 

"  The  consequence  is  that  1  am  established  in  my 
business  as  an  attorney  and  '  general  counsellor  '  here  in 
a  new  mining  town  in  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

"  Believe  me,  dear  Miss  Finley,  your  old  friend, 

"  JOHN  WOLFF." 

To  tell  the  absolute  truth — and  what  else  is  the  duty  of 
this  author  ? — the  arrival  of  this  letter  was  not  an  entire 
surprise  to  Rachel  Finley ;  and,  which  is  more,  it  gave 
her  a  great  pleasure.  If  one  may  say  so,  she  was 
annoyed  that  she  was  pleased.  She  had  been  annoyed 
for  five  years  that  she  thought  of  John  Wolff  as  much 
and  as  often  as  she  did.  But  how  was  she  to  help  her- 
self ?  She  could  not  think  of  her  father  and  her  mother 
without  thought  of  the  Baikal.  She  could  not  think  of 
the  Baikal  without  thinking  of  the  way  she  left  the 
Baikal.  She  could  not  think  of  that  without  thinking  of 
Mr.  Wolff.  To  have  met  him — to  have  seen  him  with  the 
eye  of  the  flesh  on  the  top  of  the  mountain,  had  given 
her  great  pleasure.  Mingled  with  the  pleasure  was 


THE   ANCILLARY    ESTABLISHMENT.  131 

curiosity.  Who  was  Miss  Fiske,  and  what  were  her  re- 
lations to  Mr.  Wolff?  Rachel  had  asked  herself  these 
questions  also,  and  had  asked  them  more  often  than  she 
liked — or  rather  these  questions  had  asked  themselves. 

Dear  Miss  Dudley,  dear  Miss  Haverstock,  principal 
and  associate  principal  at  the  seminary,  1  fear  you  disap- 
prove the  questions.  I  cannot  help  that.  Truth  is 
truth.  I  cannot  tell  a  lie.  The  questions  came,  and  had 
often  come. 

Rachel  wrote  John  Wolff  a  letter.  It  was  very  short, 
but  it  was  a  very  good  letter.  She  did  not  .write  it  for 
two  days.  Then  she  said,  "  I  am  a  fool."  And  after 
she  had  written  two  orders  for  filoselle  and  one  for  gold 
thread,  and  I  know  not  how  many  for  chenille,  she 
chose  some  nice  paper,  which  had  not  the  firm's  head- 
ing, and  wrote  the  letter. 

Rachel  Finley  to  John    Wolff. 

"11  YINTON  AVENUE,  CHICAGO,  May  7,  1886. 

"  DEAR  ME.  WOLFF  :  I  have  your  kind  and  interest- 
ing letter.  I  cannot  thank  you  enough  for  your  good- 
ness in  visiting  Appleby,  nor  can  I  tell  you  how  glad  I 
am  that  you  found  the  dear  old  place  hospitable.  I  had 
not  heard  of  Aunt  Ann's  death.  They  have  ceased  writ- 
ing for  some  time,  or  have  perhaps  lost  my  changing 
address. " 

Before  Rachel  went  on  she  waited  half  an  hour.  She 
had  an  interview  with  Mrs.  Mattoon,  as  it  happened, 
about  some  very  elegant  hangings  for  the  Sorosis  of  Hot- 
water.  In  the  intervals  of  Mrs.  Mattoon 's  meditations 
Rachel  meditated  not  on  corn-color  and  saffron,  but  on 
the  second  half  of  her  letter  to  John  Wolff.  When  Mrs. 
Mattoon  had  elected  one  corn-color  and  one  saffron,  as 


132  THE    FORTUNES    OF   RACHEL. 

foolish  people  will,  so  as  to  be  wholly  sure  that  they  are 
wrong,  Rachel  applied  herself  to  write  the  other  half. 
She  was  conscious  that  she  wrote  under  difficulty. 

"  I  do  not  know  how  to  thank  you  for  your  kindness 
in  visiting  Appleby  and  Bishop  Wearmouth.  Your  let- 
ter brings  back  what  begins  sometimes  to  seem  like  a 
dream.  I  am  glad  to  know  that  there  is  somebody  in 
the  world  who  believes  such  places  exist.  More  than 
once  I  have  asked  the  gentlemen  here  to  lend  me  the 
Times,  in  the  hope  that  I  might  find  the  dear  old  names  ; 
but  I  never  find  them,  even  in  the  Corn  Market. 

"  And  I  am  so  glad  that  you  saw  Mr.  Parry  and  dear 
Dr.  Balfour.  I  knew  they  would  not  forget  me. 

"  If  you  can  spare  their  letters  for  a  few  days,  I  will 
keep  them  carefully  and  return  them  at  once.  I  think 
you  have  given  me  courage  to  write  to  Dr.  Balfour. 

"  Believe  me,  dear  Mr.  Wolff,  gratefully  yours, 

"  RACHEL  FLXLEY. 

She  did  not  write  this  second  part  without  remem- 
bering that  when  Tom  Poore,  good  fellow  though  he 
were,  had  offered  her  a  novel  by  Maurice  Jokai  she 
would  not  let  him  send  it  to  her. 

It  is  true  that  a  Hungarian  novel  is  not  a  letter  from 
Appleby. 

How  if  John  Wolff  had  offered  to  send  a  Hungarian 
novel  ? 

This  question  crossed  Rachel's  mind. 

But  she  did  not  answer  it. 

In  five  days  after  Rachel  had  sent  this  letter  she  re- 
ceived a  large  "  registered  "  letter,  the  second  which  she 
remembered  to  have  received  in  her  life.  This  did  not 
contain  a  certificate  of  stock.  It  contained  several  pho- 
tographs of  public  buildings  in  Appleby,  a  portrait  of 


THE   ANCILLARY    ESTABLISHMENT.  133 

the  well- remembered  face  of  Mr.  Parry,  the  clergyman, 
and  several  notes  and  letters  from  him  and  Dr.  Balfour 
to  John  Wolff,  which  showed  quite  distinctly  how  that 
gentleman  had  advanced  from  the  relations  of  a  stranger 
interested  in  the  local  antiquities  to  a  near  acquaintance 
amounting  almost  to  intimacy. 

If  John  Wolff  thought  that  he  should  give  Rachel  ex- 
quisite pleasure  in  sending  this  parcel,  he  was  quite  right. 
Pleasure  mixed  with  pain.  Yes.  That  is  the  way  with 
pleasure.  But  the  parcel  gave  to  Rachel  a  very  happy 
evening. 

Two  days  after,  late  in  the  forenoon,  she  was  on  her 
knees  in  the  designing-room,  just  drawing  in  upon  a 
magnificent  fold  of  crimson  satin  the  leading  lines  which 
were  to  guide  one  of  her  most  skilful  needlewomen,  who 
was  to  fix  the  exquisite  forms  of  a  handful  of  water-lilies 
upon  the  curtain.  The  door  behind  Rachel  was  thrown 
open,  and  the  Swedish  girl  who  ran  her  errands  and  at- 
tended her  bell  said,  in  her  outlandish  dialect : 

"  A  gentleman  wishes  to  see  you,  Miss  Finley." 

"All  right,"  said  the  unconscious  Rachel,  supposing 
he  was  where  he  should  have  been— iu  the  office.  "  Bid 
him  take  a  chair,  Thekla. " 

The  stupid  Thekla  withdrew,  and  John  Wolff  stood 
eilent  behind  the  unconscious  artist. 

He  did  not  care  to  interrupt  her.  She  poised  herself 
on  her  left  hand,  which  was  gloved.  She  worked  with 
charming  freedom  and  promptness  with  her  right,  vary- 
ing her  chalks  from  moment  to  moment,  which  lay  in  a 
saucer  on  one  side.  One  and  another  lily  started  from 
the  rich  groundwork.  Once  and  again  she  looked  up  at 
a  great  basin  full  of  the  pretty  creatures  which  stood  on 
a  chair  at  her  left.  But  she  had  clearly  a  very  distinct 
notion  of  what  she  was  about,  and  what  she  meant  to  do. 


134  THE   FORTUNES    OP    RACHEL. 

When  slie  had  thrown  half  a  dozen  of  these  graceful 
forms  upon  the  satin  she  struck  a  hand-bell  which  was 
on  the  floor,  rose  to  her  feet  lightly,  and  stepped  back 
to  see  the  effect. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,"  said  John  Wolff.  "  I  believe 
the  girl  -should  not  have  brought  me  here.  I  did  not 
mean  to  interrupt  you." 

If  he  had  dropped  from  heaven  Kachel  would  not  have 
been  more  amazed.  It  would  be  fair,  indeed,  to  say 
that  she  would  not  have  been  so  much  amused. 

She  recovered  herself  in  a  minute,  blushing  very 
prettily  all  the  same. 

"  Have  you  been  here  ever  since  Thekla  spoke  to  me  ? 
I  thought  a  Mr.  Sullivan  had  come  ten  minutes  too  early 
for  his  appointment,  and  that  he  was  waiting  in  the 
office.  I  did  not  mind  making  him  wait,  for  indeed  I  am 
very  punctual.  But  you  have  been  standing  all  this 
time  ?  Pray,  come  in." 

And  to  make  up  for  her  neglect,  if  neglect  it  were, 
Eachel  was  perhaps  more  gracious,  certainly  was  less 
reserved,  than  she  might  have  been  to  her  unexpected 
visitor. 

His  visit  was  but  a  broken  one,  of  course.  ]VIr.  Sulli- 
van came,  and  Mr.  Wolff  had  a  chance  to  see  how  Miss 
Finley  dealt  with  a  man  of  business. 

Madame  Leger  came,  who  was  to  embroider  Iho 
water-lilies,  and  Eachel  bade  him  come  to  advise  with 
them  about  one  or  two  doubtful  points. 

Then  they  would  begin  on  Bishop  Wearmouth,  and 
eome  eager  girl  would  come  running  in  to  stigmatize 
the  twist  of  some  silk  or  to  consult  on  the  foil  to  a 
color. 

John  Wolff  had  tried  his  bold  experiment,  and  he 
had  to  satisfy  himself  that  it  had  not  wholly  failed. 


THE    ANCILLARY    ESTABLISHMENT.  135 

"  When  may  I  see  you  when  I  do  not  interrupt  you  (  ' 
lie  said.  "  Are  you  at  liberty  this  evening  ?" 

Rachel  was  at  liberty,  and  fixed  the  hour  when  he 
might  call. 

Oddly  enough,  when  he  called,  he  asked  her  if  she 
would  like  to  go  to  Thomas's  concert.  For  Thomas  and 
his  belongings  were  in  Chicago  again.  Rachel  assented, 
and  they  went.  There  was  no  carriage,  and  no  talk  of 
a  carriage.  And  though  the  distance  was  full  two  miles, 
Mr.  Wolff's  only  allusion  to  it  was  to  ask  Rachel  if  she 
preferred  to  walk.  She  said  she  did,  and  they  walked. 
Oddly  enough,  I  said,  but  the  real  oddity  was  that  when 
they  came  to  the  hall,  where  Rachel  had  not  been  since 
she  came  with  Mr.  Foore,  their  tickets  happened  to  be  to 
the  identical  seats,  or  so  she  thought,  which  she  occupied 
with  him  on  that  evening  when  she  was  so  happy.  Did 
she  make  all  this  up  as  she  went  along,  as  Miss  Dudley 
had  taught  her  Bishop  Berkeley  supposed  ? 

And  they  walked  home.  What  did  they  talk  of  ?  I 
know,  but  I  will  not  tell.  They  talked  of  everything, 
from  the  heavens  above  to  the  earth  beneath,  and  to  the 
waters  under  the  earth.  They  did  not  think  they  knew 
everything.  They  knew  that  they  did  not.  But  they 
felt  of  every  conceivable  subject,  in  that  happy  range  of 
opening  confidences  when  neither  of  two  people  is  afraid 
of  the  other,  when  each  is  willing  to  confess  ignorance, 
and  when  both  are  willing  to  wonder,  to  ask  questions, 
and  both  hope  to  know  more.  That  Rachel  had  come 
by  intuition  to  some  of  his  most  cherished  convictions  of 
life  and  duty  -\vas  to  John  Wolff  an  exquisite  pleasure. 
That  this  man,  thirty  years  old,  who  had  seen  life  on  the 
frontier,  while  he  talked  of  Mr.  Gilder's  pofcms  and  of 
Aurora  Leigh,  should  own  himself  still  a  learner  in  so 
many  things,  was  to  Rachel  a  surprise.  To  talk,  squarely 


130  THE    FORTUNES    OF   RACHEL. 

and  fairly  to  talk,  of  two  hours  and  more  on  tilings  of 
the  Idea  ;  to  live  with  another  sympathetic  friend,  as 
eager  as  she  for  the  larger  life,  not  simply  while  she 
read  some  magazine,  or  heard  Mr.  Batehelor  preach,  or 
sat  before  her  evening  fire  with  Mrs.  Browning — this  was 
a  new  luxury  to  the  director  of  the  embroidery  of 
liutchinson  &  Tileston.  And  Rachel  was  distinctly  con- 
scious of  regret  when  the  long  walk  was  over  and  they 
were  at  home. 

"You  would  have  preferred  to  take  the  car  ?"  said 
poor  John  Wolff  guiltily.  "  I  was  very  careless." 

"  Indeed  no,  Mr.  Wolff.  You  forget  I  am  a  country 
girl.  I  owe  you  a  very  pleasant  evening." 

"  I  wish  you  would  give  me  one  to-morrow.  At 
what  time  may  my  cousin  call  on  you  ?" 

And  his  cousin  called — a  frightened,  dowdy,  silent 
mother  of  a  family  from  the  Blue  Grass  region  of  Ken- 
tucky. "  Fetich,"  Mrs.  Winchell  would  have  said, 
and  "  Fetich"  it  was.  But  that  call  was  supposed  to 
give  John  Wolff  some  additional  privileges  in  the  way 
of  escorting  Miss  Finley  to  one  public  place  or  another, 
and,  indeed,  in  calling  upon  her  in  Jier  pretty  parlor  in 
Yinton  Avenue. 

"  Why  Yinton  Avenue  ?"  he  said  to  her  one  day. 

"  I  asked  the  same  question  when  I  came  here,  and 
was  told  that  my  question  showed  the  ingratitude  of 
republics.  It  seems  Mr.  Yinton  was  a  great  statesman, 
and  he  was  born  in  sight  of  Kearsarge  Seminary." 


CHAPTEE  XIY. 

HUDDLESTON'S. 

"  Oh  for  a  lodge  in  some  vast  -wilderness, 
Some  boundless  contiguity  of  shade." 

Cowper. 

AND  after  three  or  four  days  of  life  gilded  thus  by 
sunset  glow  and  evening  starlight,  John  Wolff  returned 
to  his  new  Potosi  in  the  Kocky  Mountains.  He  returned 
to  ask  himself  whether  by  any  rniracle  this  lovely  woman, 
who  had  found  her  own  foothold  in  the  world,  would 
abandon  it  to  share  his  foothold  with  him.  He  did  not 
live  in  a  log-cabin.  Oh,  no  !  The  house  he  lived  in -was 
builded  of  sawed  lumber.  An  ell  behind  was  the  orig- 
inal log-cabin  of  the  first  hero,  Huddleston,  who  in  pros- 
pecting had  struck  his  foot,  one  happy  day,  on  that  fated 
stone  which  had  rolled  down  from  the  cliff  which  had 
yielded  the  ore  which  the  shaft  had  sent  to  the  smelting 
mill  at  Yorkville,  and  which  Yorkville  distributed  to  the 
world. 

Streets  had  extemporized  themselves  on  the  line  of 
the  trail  by  which  the  lonely  Hod  Iluddleston  brought 
his  morning  pailful  of  water  in  those  days  of  pros- 
pecting, and  by  which  he  went  down  to  the  creek  or  up 
to  the  "  clearing."  A  church  had  built  itself  where  he 
tethered  his  two  burros,  when  he  became  rich  enough  to 
have  them,  and  a  school-house  stood  at  the  corner  where 


138  THE    FORTUNES    OF    RACHEL. 

he  had  first  blazed  a  tree-trunk  when  he  trod  this  wilder- 
ness as  its  discoverer. 

Such  was  the  novelty  of  the  place  where  John  Wolff 
was  the  leading  magistrate  and  attorney.  He  held  in  his 
hands,  when  the  court  came  in,  more  "briefs,"  if  any- 
body had  called  them  so,  than  any  three  of  his  friends  at 
the  bar. 

It  was  to  this  wilderness  that,  when  he  went  to 
Chicago,  he  had  audaciously  hoped  he  might  induce 
Rachel  Finley  to  remove — to  bring  her  dear,  sweet  self 
and  to  be  the  glory  and  treasure  of  his  life. 

And  he  had  found  Rachel  Finley  herself,  in  her  way, 
a  leader,  a  power  in  the  world  in  which  she  lived.  He 
had  almost  forgotten  the  wilderness  as  he  had  sat  in  her 
pretty  parlor,  as  he  had  breathed  in  the  fragrance  of  her 
fresh  roses,  as  he  had  read  to  her  Tennyson' s  poem  from 
the  last  Continental  magazine,  as  they  had  talked  of 
Raskin's  notions  of  clouds,  and  of  Mr.  Tyrwhitt's  draw- 
ing clubs.  He  had  been  bold  enough,  before  he  went, 
to  think  of  dragging  this  charming  woman  to  share  with 
him  this  shanty  in  which  he  lived. 

He  was  not  so  hopeful  now. 

Bat  John  Wolff  knew,  from  the  hair  of  his  head  to 
the  sole  of  his  foot — he  knew  that  he  loved  this  woman 
with  a  love  that  quickened  every  pulse  of  his  life. 
When  it  began  he  could  not  tell.  He  certainly  was  not 
conscious  of  such  a  mastery  over  every  hour  of  his  life, 
when  lie  lifted  a  wet,  laughing  girl  out  of  the  Atlantic, 
or  when  he  spread  for  her  his  ulster  in  the  stern  sheets 
of  the  Baikal's  cutter.  Had  he  been,  three  years  after, 
when  he  and  she  met,  day  by  day,  on  the  piazza  at 
Greeley's  at  Waterville,  that  day  when  he  piloted  the 
party  up  Osceola — did  he  know  then  that  she  was  to 
have  this  empire  over  his  life  ?  John  Wolff  looked  back 


HUDDLESTON'S.  139 

over  it  all  and  wondered,  and  could  not  tell  himself. 
Certainly  lie  had  thought  of  her  ten  times  as  often  as  he 
thought  of  any  other  woman  in  the  years  between. 
Certainly,  that  day  when  they  were  talking  on  Mount 
Kearsarge,  he  would  have  rather  cut  off  his  hand  than  go 
and  help  Dunn  with  his  old  kettle.  When  did  this  mas- 
tery of  a  man  by  a  woman  begin  ? 

And  what  was  it  ?  Certainly  not  that  she  was  tho 
most  beautiful  girl  he  ever  looked  upon.  John  Wolff 
eaid  to  himself  that  he  had  seen  many  other  beautiful 
women,  though,  of  course,  there  was  no  one  quite  like 
her.  Her  smile  ?  or  her  way  of  talking  ?  or  was  it  that 
she  was  so  frank  and  threw  you  off  your  guard  ? 

John  Wolff  turned  it  over  and  over  as  he  rode  day  and 
night  and  day  and  night  from  Chicago  to  Iluddleston's 
Shaft,  and  John  Wolff  could  not  tell. 

John  Wolff  turned  it  over  as  he  sat  in  his  better  room 
in  the  shanty  which  had  been  built  in  front  of  Hod 
Huddleton's  cabin,  and  again  he  could  not  tell. 

Ts  or  can  this  author  tell.  Only  this  :  that  it  was  quite 
certain  that  Rachel  Finley  was  the  queen  of  John  Wolff's 
life. 

And  where  was  the  queen  to  reign  if  he  should  bring 
her  here  ?  Alas  !  there  and  then  it  was  that  John  Wolff 
saw  and  felt  the  deficiencies  of  his  surroundings. 

For  a  thousand  dollars  Merriman  the  carpenter  would 
put  him  up  a  better  house 'than  this.  But  hardly  on  a 
spot  so  accessible. 

And  she,  living  in  luxury  there  in  Yinton  Avenue,  in 
such  quarters  as  Merriman  the  carpenter  never  dreamed 
of! 

Poor  John  Wolff  !  Could  lie  have  the  face  to  ask  his 
queen  to  reign  in  such  a  palace  ? 

A  knock  at  the  door. 


HO  1HE   FORTUNES   OF   RACHEL. 

"Be  you- the  Squire?" 

"  Yes,  I  am  ;  come  in  ;  there's  a  post  and  chain  round 
the  corner.  Fasten  your  horse.  Will  not  -the  lady  come 
in?" 

"  That's  jest  it,"  said  the  man,  relieved  because  the 
young  Squire's  foresight  saved  him  from  the  necessities 
of  further  explanation. 

"  Yer  see,  she  had  to  walk  up  from  the  depot,  and  I 
met  her  at  the  Crossings  with  the  burros  'n  the  little 
cayoose — that's  Nalmm's.  Nahum  lent  her  to  me  ;  he 
tin-owed  her,  'n  got  off  to  the  creek,  'n  I  had  ter  go  after 
him  'n  catch  him,  'n  ride  the  blasted  critter  myself,  'n 
that's  wy  we're  here  so  late,  'n  we  must  be  ter  hum  'fore 
sundown.  Nahum's  my  pard." 

As  he  gave  this  somewhat  unnecessary  explanation, 
the  lady  herself  entered.  Her  aspect  and  that  of  her 
dress  confirmed  his  account  of  the  difficulties  of  her 
journey. 

John  Wolff  suggested  vainly  that  they  had  better  go 
to  the  Elder's,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  farther  on.  He  was 
obliged  to  say  that  he  knew  the  Elder  was  absent  at  the 
moment  at  a  miner's  funeral,  but  Mrs.  Primrose  would 
tell  them  when  her  husband  would  be  home. 

"  No  more  waitin'  for  me,  Squire.  I  have  been 
waitin'  long  enough  already,  haven't  I,  LucSndy  ?" 

And  a  ready  smile  from  Lucindy  confirmed  the  state- 
ment. 

John  was  fain  to  make  them  stand  up  on  one  side  of 
the  office,  and  with  as  much  solemnity  as  was  possible, 
in  a  form  well-nigh  as  brief  as  the  English  language 
would  permit,  he  made  them  one  and  gave  them  his 
blessing.  Brief  though  the  ceremony  was,  before  it  was 
over  there  were  several  admiring  witnesses  who  entered 
the  office  after  it  began. 


HUDDLESTON'S.  141 

They  gave  little  time  for  congratulation,  nor  indeed 
did  the  parties  most  concerned  seem  to  care  for  this. 
The  new-comers  thronged  around  John  Wolff  to  explain 
to  him  that  the  one-eyed  Welshman  had  hit  Yankee 
Pete  over  the  head  with  a  shovel  and  had  fled  ;  that 
Pete  was  Weeding  profusely  and  was  supposed  to  be 
dying  in  his  brother's  cabin,  and  that  John's  services 
and  especially  his  seal  were  necessary  for  the  rapid  com- 
pletion of  a  will  which  Pete  desired  to  make  before  he 
died.  Almost  superstitious  reverence  was  attached  in 
this  community  to  a  few  printer's  types  encircled  with  a 
bit  of  bent  brass  rule,  and  all  mounted  in  a  grotesque 
handle  of  laurel- wood  which  was  in  John's  possession, 
transmitted  from  his  predecessor.  "  Et's  the  old  seal 
of  Arapaho  County,  'n  'as  been  for  years,  sens  the  fust 
pilgrim  come  up  from  St.  Louis.  Et  was  good  then 
from  the  British  line  down  to  New  Mexico,  and  et's 
good  in  the  same  country  now." 

Before  John  had  finished  with  the  will  he  thought  he 
might  be  needed  to  hold  an  inquest.  But,  on  the  arrival 
of  his  professional  brother  on  Ins  way  back  from  Mulli- 
gan's, where  three  men  had  been  crushed  by  a  landslide, 
it  was  made  clear  that  Pete's  injuries  were  not  fatal. 
Messengers  were  despatched  with  instructions  to  those 
who  were  pursuing  the  Welshman  that  if  they  were  not 
particular  his  life  might  be  spared  ;  and  John,  after  ex- 
ecuting Pete's  will  and  hiding  it  in  a  certain  tobacco-box 
indicated  by  Pete's  brother,  returned  to  the  meditations 
which  had  been  somewhat  suddenly  interrupted.  Again 
he  looked  sadly  around  the  inner  office.  As  he  rode 
from  Chicago,  it  had  been  easy  to  imagine  that  with  a 
little  care  it  would  be  made  to  equal  the  pretty  sitting- 
room  and  kitchen  of  the  Elder's  wife.  That  would  not 
be  like  Rachel's  parlor.  But  nothing  could  be  like 


142  THE   FOETUSES   OF    RACHEL. 

Rachel's  parlor.  It  would  be  neat  and  decent,  and  he 
should  not  be  ashamed  to  bring  her  into  it.  Some  im- 
provements he  could  make,  and  would.  First  of  all,  the 
four  prints  which  were  the  decorations  of  the  wall 
should  not  be  tacked  to  it  with  carpet-tacks  when  the 
queen  came  in.  They  should  be  framed,  and  framed  by 
his  own  hand. 

So  he  went  back  into  the  shed  which  served  as  a  work- 
shop, lighted  a  tallow  dip,  and  stuck  it  carefully  upon  a 
sconce  on  the  wall,  and  selecting  a  bit  of  yellow  pine 
Avent  happily  to  work  on  something  which  should  remind 
him  every  minute  of  the  woman  whom  he  loved. 

Happily  he  had  worked  for  more  than  an  hour,  though 
the  time  seemed  shorter,  when  he  was  called  into  the 
office  by  loud  cries  and  sturdy  knocking^  ;  and,  appear- 
ing with  his  candle,  was  greeted  vociferously  by  a  dozen 
friends.  They  were  clothed  all  in  leather,  and  wet 
from  top  to  toe,  and  muddy  as  they  were  wet  ;  but  every 
man  was  loud  and  glad  with  cheerful  congratulations, 
which  John  did  not  understand  for  many  minutes. 
Whenever  any  person  who  had  any  sense  attempted  to 
explain,  a  new  crowd  of  eager  visitors  broke  in  at  the 
door,  and  with  their  hand-shakings  and  vociferations 
silenced  the  well-meant  beginning. 

But  at  last  a  lamp  got  itself  lighted,  the  greater  part 
of  the  company  found  seats  on  the  benches  which  were 
used  for  witnesses  in  occasional  trials,  the  rest  disposed 
themselves  on  the  tables,  and  George  Fletcher,  who  was 
recognized  as  captain  of  the  crew,  was  permitted  to  tell 
their  story. 

Fletcher  had  been  away  for  four  days  as  the  delegate 
at  a  State  convention.  The  Territorial  Government  was 
to  give  way  at  last,  and  this  convention  was  to  name  the 
officers  to  be  voted  for  in  the  new  administration.  It 


HUDDLESTOX'S.  143 

had  been  pretty  well  understood  who  all  the  important 
candidates  would  be,  and  Wolff  took  no  interest  in  the 
return  of  Fletcher — who  was  professionally  sometimes 
his  antagonist,  sometimes  his  associate,  and  always  hia 
friend — but  in  the  certainty  that  he  would  bring  in  a 
little  new-made  gossip  from  the  capital.  But  Fletcher 
had  indeed  news  to  announce.  For  just  as  the  conven- 
tion was  finishing  its  labors  it  was  announced  that  Judge 
Sargent,  who  from  the  beginning  had  been  a  favorite  in 
the  Territory — had  indeed  once  held,  as  his  own,  the 
famous  grand  seal  of  the  unbounded  county  of  Arapaho 
— had  been  thrown  from  his  horse  in  fording  a  river  and 
had  been  drowned.  The  convention  had,  of  course, 
named  him  as  the  candidate  for  chief  justice.  But  so 
soon  as  the  news  of  his  death  came,  it  had  been  necessary 
to  slide  up  on  the  ticket  the  names  of  the  other  judges 
and  to  place  upon  it  one  new  name. 

"  And  George,  he  nominated  John  Wolff  !  Three 
cheers  for  George  Fletcher  !  Three  cheers  for  John 
Wolff  !"  Six  cheers  were  given  lustily.  By  this  time 
all  the  population  of  the  Shaft  were  in  or  around  the 
office,  and  it  was  clear  enough  that,  whenever  the  elec- 
tion came,  no  man  would  be  permitted  to  vote  for  any 
one  but  John  Wolff  in  that  precinct. 

"  George  ;  he  hit  bed-rock  that  time  !  Three  cheers 
for  George  !" 

"Sheer  madness,"  said  Wolff,  when  they  gave  him 
time  to  speak.  "  I  wonder  they  heard  you  through." 

"  They  did  hear  me,"  said  Fletcher  proudly,  and  well 
pleased  with  his  maiden  success,  as  well  he  might  be. 

"  I  think  you  know  me.  I  said  enough,  and  I  said 
no  more.  I  bet  on  the  best  horse,  and  the  best  horse 
won." 

"  Three  cheers  for  the  two-year-old  !"     This  was  the 


144  THE   FORTUNES    OF    RACHEL. 

cry  of  one  of  John's  enthusiastic  constituents.  By  some 
accident  it  was  quoted  afterward,  and  for  twenty  years 
lie  was  affectionately  known  as  the  two-year-old  in  all 
that  county. 

John  would  not  treat,  excepting  to  tobacco.  Every 
man  of  them  knew  that  when  he  came,  but  none  the  less 
did  a  crowd,  constantly  renewed,  of  loyal  adherents 
throng  the  office  till  long  after  midnight.  It  was  in  the 
densest  smoke,  after  two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  that 
John  found  his  way  to  the  bed  on  which  full  fifty  of  his 
supporters  had  sat  in  turn,  in  the  last  six  hours,  to  reflect 
as  he  might,  and  to  thank  God  as  he  could,  for  the  un- 
expected. 

When  he  waked  that  morning  he  could  offer  to  the 
woman  whom  he  worshipped,  to  the  queen  of  his  life, 
no  better  home  than  such  a  barrack  as  this  he  lived  in, 
and  such  a  future  as  depended  on  the  duties  which  that 
afternoon  he  had  been  rendering  to  Law  and  Order. 

To-night,  as  he  went  to  bed,  he  was  certain  that  he 
could  offer  her  a  home  in  the  town  which  was  to  be  the 
capital  of  a  growing  State,  and  for  seven  years  at  least 
an  income  which,  if  not  large,  was  certain,  and  which 
would  be  quite  sufficient  for  all  his  modest  wants,  and, 
as  he  dared  hope,  for  hers.  Such  a  woman  as  Rachel 
might  not  care,  but  John  "Wolff  cared  that  the  social 
position  which  he  asked  her  to  share  with  him  -would  be 
second  to  that  of  no  person  whom  she  would  meet  or  see. 

Oh,  if  he  could  think  that  she  thought  of  him  once 
while  he  thought  a  thousand  times  of  her  ! 

What  would  she  say  when  he  wrote  to  her,  as  he 
should  do  as  soon  as  the  sun  rose,  to  say  that  his  future 
was  assured  ;  that  all  he  was,  and  all  that  he  had  was 
hers,  and  that  the  happiness  or  the  misery  of  his  life  was 
in  her  hands? 


CHAPTER  XY. 

CHICAGO     REVISITED. 

"  Love  whispers  in  my  ear  his  trembling  strain, 

Which  I  with  trembling  lip  repeat  to  him  again." 
'    .  Petrarch. 

As  the  rosy  light  of  morning  made  even  the  rough 
hillside  above  the  Shaft  beautiful,  John  Wolff  sat  at  his 
desk  and  began  his  letter.  He  did  not  owe  Rachel  a 
letter.  Not  he.  He  had  used  up  all  his  rights  the  hour 
after  he  returned  from  Chicago,  under  the  pretence  of 
sending  her  a  scrap  which  he  had  cut  out  from  an  Eng- 
lish newspaper,  and  had  before  forgotten.  But  at  this 
time  he  had  that  supreme  right  which  every  man  has,  at 
least  once  in  his  life,  in  his  dealing  with  woman.  Rachel 
might  be  surprised,  when  she  received  a  second  letter 
from  the  Shaft  so  soon  after  the  first.  John  could  not 
help  that.  Surprised  or  not,  she  would  not  put  his  letter 
into  the  fire. 

John    Wolff  to  Rachel  Finley. 

"  HUDDLESTON'S  SHAFT. 

"  MY  DEAR  Miss  FINLEY  :  I  hope  that  my  letter  will 
not  surprise  you.  I  hope  you  have  some  idea  of  the 
feeling  which  I  have  long  had  for  you,  but  which  I  have 
had  no  right  to  express  till  to-day.  Yesterday  morn- 
ing I  could  not  have  written  what  I  write  now. 

"  If  you  have  eeen  that  I  hold  you  in  the  highest 


14:6  THE   FORTUNES   OF   KACHEL. 

esteem,  you  have  seen  only  what  you  have  seen  in  a 
thousand  other  men.  If  you  have  guessed  that  I  love 
you  with  all  my  heart,  there  has  been  at  least  some  intro- 
duction made  for  this  letter.  But  I  have  done  my  best 
not  to  offer  any  addresses  which  I  had  no  right  to  offer. 
Until  yesterday  I  had  no  home  to  offer  to  any  woman. 
One  of  the  queer  chances  of  frontier  life  now  offers  me 
honorable  work  to  do,  and  a  position  more  than  decent, 
such  as  I  have  a  right  to  ask  you  to  share.  Tso  place  in 
this  State  can  be  made  into  such  a  pretty  paradise  as  you 
have  made  around  yourself,  and  I  feel  painfully  enough 
how  mad  I  am  to  ask  you  to  share  with  me  the  rough- 
ness of  our  life.  But  if  you  ever  need  a  strong  arm  and 
a  true  heart,  here  they  are.  And  if,  as  the  books  say, 
love  can  make  any  home  happy,  yours  shall  be  the  happiest 
in  the  world. 

"  Whatever  your  answer  to  a  letter  so  bold, 
"  I  am  always  yours, 

N  WOLFF." 


]^o,  in  the  bottom  of  her  heart  Rachel  was  not  sur- 
prised when  this  letter  came. 

But,  in  truth,  she  was  troubled  when  it  came.  This 
good  fellow  did  not  know  her,  and  she  knew  that  he  did 
not  know  her. 

Heavens  and  earth,  what  was  it  all  !  They  had  not 
really  talked  with  each  other  twenty  times  in  their  lives. 
Those  woodland  excursions  at  Waterville,  that  half-hour 
on  the  hemlock  boughs  at  Kearsarge,  the  evening  at 
Thomas's  concert,  the  day  in  Mr.  Tileston's  yacht  on  the 
lake,  the  morning  when  they  went  to  Mr.  Batchelor's 
church,  the  little  party  she  made  in  her  own  rooms  for 
his  cousins  —  these  and  the  other  incidents  of  his  stay  in 
Chicago  had  given  him  no  knowledge  of  her.  "  How 


CHICAGO    REVISITED.  147 

can  the  man  take  the  risk  of  marrying  a  woman  he  never 
saw  ?" 

Yet  Kachel  knew  very  well,  from  the  first  moment, 
that  she  was  not  going  to  write  to  John  Wolff  any  such 
letter  as  she  wrote  to  Thomas  Poore.  What  she  should 
write  she  did  not  know.  That  question  she  carried  in 
her  heart  all  the  morning.  In  all  the  discussions  with 
Miss  Stoddard  as  to  that  knotty  question  about  the  ad- 
vance of  wages  to  the  Klepstein  girl,  in  all  those  serious 
instructions  from  Mr.  Tileston  about  the  Lyons  invoices, 
the  letter  to  John  Wolff  was  in  the  forefront  of  her 
brain.  At  lunch,  when  all  the  heads  of  rooms  were  to- 
gether, and  when  there  was  some  special  interest  about 
the  flowers  they  were  to  send  to  Mrs.  Bartlett,  Rachel's 
thoughts  were  far  away  in  the  Eocky  Mountains.  And 
when  she  went  home,  and  Clare  brought  in  her  solitary 
dinner-tea,  Rachel  asked  herself  how  such  a  meal  would 
be  served  at  Greeley,  at  Prescott,  or  at  Jamestown. 
"  This  will  do,  Clare.  You  need  not  stay.  I'll  wash 
the  things  myself." 

There  is  no  excuse  for  a  moment's  more  delay,  Rachel. 
Here  is  paper  on  the  Davenport,  here  is  pen,  and  here  is 
ink.  The  man  is  in  misery,  and  you  must  write  now. 

Rachel  Finley  to  John    Wolf. 

"  VINTOX  AVENUE,  CHICAGO. 

"  MY  DEAR  MR.  WOLFF  :  Your  letter  has  indeed  sur- 
prised me,  as  you  knew  it  would.  Indeed,  you  do  not 
know  what  you  are  doing.  Your  cousin  thought  I  was 
joking  when  I  said  I  was  a  fool  and  a  goose.  But  I  had 
said  it  a  hundred  times  before,  and  it  was  never  more 
true  than  it  is  now. 

"  Do  not  think  me  hard  in  saying  so,  but  indeed,  Mr. 


148  THE    FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

Wolff,  I  do  not  know  you,  and  how  is  it  possible  that 
you  should  know  me  ? 

"Indeed,  you  should  know  more  of  your  wife,  Mr. 
Wolff,  than  that  she  swims  well  enough  to  come  out  of 
<he  water  when  she  has  been  fool  enough  to  tum- 
ble in. 

"  You  spoke  as  if  some  business  might  call  you  to 
Chicago  again.  If  that  happens,  will  you  come  and  see 
me  ?  I  feel  sure  that  I  can  then  explain  to  you  that  you 
are  quite  mistaken  in  thinking  of  me  as  you  do. 

"  In  reading  my  letter,  I  see  I  have  not  said  that  I  am 
honored  ;  indeed,  I  am  flattered  by  such  confidence  and 
regard.  Pray  believe  that  I  am, 

"  Very  truly, 

"  RACHEL  FINLEY.  " 

Thus  did  Rachel  Finlcy  evade  John  Wolff's  letter. 

Rachel,  the  woman  who  deliberates  is  lost.  John 
Wolff  received  the  letter  at  half -past  eleven  in  the  fore- 
noon. At  twelve  he  was  on  his  horse.  At  five  o'clock 
he  was  in  the  express  train  on  the  Snion  Pacific  Rail- 
road. Two  days  after,  at  seven  in  the  evening,  Jie  rang 
the  bell  at  Vinton  Avenue,  and  absolutely  to  Rachel's 
surprise,  Clare,  who  liked  John  Wolff,  showed  him  in, 
unannounced,  to  her  mistress's  parlor. 

"  You  sent  for  me,  Miss  Finley,  and  I  have  come." 

"Mr.  Wolff,  I  am  so  glad  to  see  you."  What  was 
there  in  her  eyes  ?  John  Wolff  took  not  one  hand,  but 
both,  and  pressed  his  lips  to  hers. 

"I  should  like  to  know  this,"  said  Rachel  to  John 
Wolff  one  evening,  as  they  walked  together  under  the 
moonlight  in  Lincoln  Park.  "  Can  any  one  tell  me 
when  and  how  all  this  began  ?  I  do  not  suppose  that 


CHICAGO  KKVISITED.  14i» 

every  man  who  fishes  a  little  girl  out  of  the  sea  falls  eo 
immediately  in  love  with  her." 

"  That  depends,"  said  John  Wolff.  "  Anadyomcnc, 
the  old  people  called  her — one  who  rises  from  the  sea." 

"  They  never  called  anybody  so  who  had  on  a  water- 
proof and  a  storm  hat  and  india-rubber  boots.  Even 
your  audacity  will  not  pretend  that  it  began  then." 

No  :  John's  audacity  did  not  pretend  that  it  began 
then.  But  John  did  now  carry  the  beginning  far  back 
in  that  blessed  visit  of  a  fortnight  in  dear  "Waterville. 
And  it  proved,  as  they  came  to  talk  it  over,  that  Rachel 
had  a  very  accurate  memory  of  parties  to  the  Elephant, 
and  the  visit  to  Swazey's  pasture,  and  the  first  lessons  in 
trout-fishing.  It  was  agreed  that,  while  foreordained  in 
heaven,  "  it"  must  have  begun  at  Waterville.  And  to 
dear  Waterville  they  agreed  they  would  make  a  pilgrim- 
age, when  first  they  could  take  a  journey  eastward. 

"  And  I  declare  I  have  wholly  forgotten  one  thing," 
cried  Rachel.  "  I  meant,  I  should  have  asked  it  first  of 
all.  Whatever  became  of  Miss  Fiske  ?" 

"  Miss  Fiske  ?  •Who  is  Miss  Fiske  ?" 

"  That  is  just  what  I  ask  you." 

"  Miss  Fiske  ?  There  is  old  Ann  Fiske,  who  fries  the 
pork  and  washes  the  clothes  for  the  boys  at  Gresham's 
Gulch.  You  don't  mean  her.  She  must  be  Mrs.  Fiske, 
I  think.  I  always  supposed  she  was  very  much  mar- 
ried." 

"  What  nonsense  !"  cried  Rachel,  who  was,  however, 
laughing  till  she  cried.  "  I  believe  you  are  keeping 
something  back  from  me.  I  mean  the  pretty  Miss  Fiske 
who  blushed  so  sweetly  when  we  surprised  you  at  her 
feet  on  the  side  of  Mount  Kearsarge." 

"  Whose  feet  ?" 

"  Miss  Fiske's  feet.     You  do  not  forget  your  idols  so 


150  THE    FORTUNES    OF    RACHEL. 

completely,  do  you  ?  When  you  take  young  ladies  up 
mountains,  and  sit  at  their  feet,  and  whisper  soft  noth- 
ing in  their  ears,  you  do  not  forget  their  names,  do 
you  ?" 

"  Do  you  mean — you  do  mean — Tom  Dunn's  half- 
sister,  the  man  with  the  kettle  ?" 

"  I  do  not  know  whose  sister  she  is.  I  know  she 
seemed  to  be  under  your  care." 

"  Under  my  care  ?  That  girl  under  my  care  ?  Tom 
Dunn  had  two  sisters  there,  I  believe — one  was  named 
Dunn,  and  the  other  one — do  you  say  her  name  was 
Fiske  ?  I  should  have  thought  it  was  a  longer  name. 
Is  it  not  Waters  ?  I  never  saw  her  before,  and  I  never 
saw  her  again.  I  have  not  thought  of  her  from  that 
hour  to  this." 

Poor  Rachel  believed  him,  and  only  did  him  justice 
in  believing  him.  But  she  was  conscious  that  she  had 
thought  of  this  mysterious  Miss  Fiske  a  hundred  times. 

And  John  could  not  stay,  even  in  that  kingdom  of 
heaven.  Just  then  and  there  for  these  two  the  other 
name  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  was  Chicago.  But 
there  was  much  writing  back  and  forth.  The  postmaster 
at  the  Shaft  came  to  expect  one  of  Rachel's  pretty  letters 
every  day.  And  it  was  settled  that/ as  soon  as  the  elec- 
tion was  well  over,  the  new  judge  should  come  to  Chi- 
cago and  Mr.  Batchelor  should  make  them  one.  John 
had  found  a  better  house  in  the  mushroom  town  which 
had  been  made  the  seat  of  government  than  he  had  dared 
to  hope.  As  to  furnishing  it,  Rachel  would  not  let  him 
give  a  thought  or  say  a  word.  That,  she  said,  was  the 
business  of  the  lady  and  the  lady's  friends. 

' '  Have  I  not  fitted  out  half  the  grand  brides  in  Chi- 
cago ?"  she  wrote  to  him.  "  Whether  our  hangings  in 
the  kitchen  shall  be  mauve  or  crimson  I  have  not  yet 


CHICAGO    KKV1S1TK1).  151 

determined.  But  I  have  determined  that  you  shall  iiot 
select  them  nor  pay  for  them.  Yon  -write  like  a  mad- 
man. You  seem  to  forget  that,  besides  the  accumulation 
of  my  honesty  industry,  I  am  a  stockholder  in  the  great 
New  England  Stocking-Loom  Company.  I  have  only  to 
sell  out,  at  the  present  favorable  rates,  and  not  a  house 
in  your  baby  capital  shall  be  so  well  furnished  as  ours. 
You  may  bring  your  own  benches  and  stools.  Pray 
bring  the  pretty  picture-frames.  They  shall  hang  in  our 
best  parlor— that  is,  in  the  only  one.  For  the  rest  I  shall 
provide." 

And  provide  she  did,  and  that  very  prettily.  Her 
business  tact  came  into  play,  and  the  arts  of  Chicago 
were  well  illustrated  m  this  pretty  home  in  the  new 
metropolis. 

John's  election  was  triumphant.  Indeed,  the  whole 
ticket  had  been  well  framed,  and  there  was  no  organized 
opposition.  It  is  not  in  the  first  days  of  a  new  State 
that  party  feeling  shows  its  worst. 

And  the  week  before  Christmas  Mr.  Batchelor  mar- 
ried them.  There  was  a  quiet  little  party  in  the  Unity 
Church,  and  then  Rachel  bade  good-by  to  her  kind  Chi- 
cago friends.  After  two  days'  travel  she  appeared  as 
Mrs.  Judge  Wolff  in  the  new  capital.  She  could  not 
but  remember,  as  she  rode  from  the  etation  to  her  new 
home,  that  other  drive,  not  so  very  long  ago,  when 
every  tree  was  a  curiosity  and  every  corner  of  a  road  a 
novelty,  as  she  rode  from  the  station  in  Hitchin  to  Aunt 
Lois  WinchelPs. 

And  so  began  seven  years  of  life  which  Rachel  always 
looked  back  on  afterward,  not  as  the  happiest,  perhaps, 
but  as  in  a  certain  way  the  most  notable  of  her  varied 
fortunes.  "  I  was  such  a  fool,  you  know,"  she  would 
say.  "  Yet  people  were  so  good  to  me,  and  certainly 


152  THE    FORTUNES    OF    RACHEL. 

there  is  a  Providence  which  takes  care  of  fools."  This 
merit  is  there  in  these  new  places,  that  everybody  alike 
is  inexperienced.  There  is  no  fashion.  Every  woman 
is  a  law  unto  herself.  "My  dear,"  said  Mrs.  Justice 
Trustum  to  Kachel  when  she  made  her  first  visit,  after 
she  had  expressed  her  frank  admiration,  so  that  Rachel 
blushed,  "  My  dear,  you  are  the  etiquette.  Have  it  just 
as  you  choose  yourself,  and  there  is  no  one  of  us  privi- 
leged to  say  you  are  wrong."  Best  of  all,  Rachel's  chil- 
dren came  to  her  :  that  wise  girl,  who  was  to  be  one  day 
her  mother's  dearest  companion,  and  who,  when  she  was 
three  months  old,  would  look  out  from  her  great  eyes  as 
if  she  saw  all  the  mysteries  in  earth  and  in  heaven. 
Then,  not  far  apart  from  each  other,  followed  two 
hardy  and  uncontrollable  boys,  who  in  after  days  would 
worship  this  sister  with  a  fond  idolatry,  but  who  in  these 
infant  days  of  the  new  State  occupied  themselves  chiefly 
in  clamoring  for  food  and  devouring  it. 

Here  was  where  Rachel's  heart  was  ;  here  was  where 
nine  tenths  of  her  life  was  spent.  Looking  back  on 
these  years  afterward,  here  were  the  eternal  hours  which 
stood  out  in  memory,  so  that  no  passage  of  time  changed 
them.  But  the  people  of  the  town  knew  her  rather  be- 
cause she  loyally  did  her  part  of  the  work  which  comes 
on  the  leaders  of  such  a  place.  The  congregation  out- 
grew the  church.  The  men  were  willing  to  have  another 
built,  but  what  with  smelting  and  prospecting  and  dig- 
ging, what  with  building. roads  and  bridges,  what  with 
flumes  and  reservoirs  and  .'other  works  of  irrigation,  there 
seemed  very  little  chance-  ;that  the  men  would  stop,  to 
build  the  church.  The  "organizing  and  raising  subscrip- 
tions and  writing  to  architects  seemed  to  fall  very  much 
upon  the  women.  And  loyally  the  women  did  their 
share,  Rachel  among  the  rest.  Then  the  graces  of  life 


CHICAGO    REVISITED.  1~>:} 

were  to  be  kept  up  in  all  this  rush  and  whirl.  The 
book-club  was  to  be  organized,  the  Society  of  the  Red 
Cross  was  to  be  ready.  When  an  avalanche  swept  all 
the  houses  on  one  side  the  stream  at  liolliday's  down  into 
the  lake,  when  there  were  forty-three  children  who 
rushed  home  from  the  school  to  find  that  they  had  no 
mothers  and  no  homes,  then  the  Eed  Cross  was  ready  to 
reply  to  the  telegraph  which  announced  the  calamity. 
Morning  brought  its  people  to  the  spot,  perhaps  hun- 
dreds of  miles,  witli  the  clothing  for  these  children,  with 
oversight  for  the  orphans,  with  food,  nay,  with  hones 
for  all.  Such  was  the  work  of  the  Red  Cross,  and  of 
the  Red  Cross,  almost  of  course,  Rachel  was  treasurer. 

They  had,  before  two  years  were  over,  a  very  pretty 
opera-house,  built  by  one  of  those  mysterious  agencies 
which  provide  opera-houses  for  all  the  world  more 
promptly  than  any  Extension  Society  provides  church- 
es. Occasionally  a  travelling  troupe  hired  it  for  "  an 
entertainment."  But  the  best  entertainments  were 
those  provided  by  home  talent,  and  the  best  people  in 
the  town  knew  that  in  proportion  as  home  talent  main- 
tained them,  they  would  be  kept  out  of  the  hands  of 
irresponsible  directors.  So  Rachel,  and  the  Judge  too, 
for  that  matter,  lent  a  hand  in  the  Shakespeare  Club, 
and  in  the  Dramatic  Union  as  well.  Whatever  would 
make  these  people  look  aloft  was  good  for  these  people. 
And  John  Wolff  and  Rachel  did  their  fair  share  in 
seeing  that  the  town  should  grow  in  the  right  way,  and, 
while  it  was  growing  so,  should  not  drift  in  the  wrong. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE    CRY    IS    STILL    THEY    COME. 

"More  guests  arrived !" 
— "  Then  show  them  into  the  banqueting-haLV' 

Hunchback. 

THE  Red  Cross  Society  had  met  for  an  unusual  meet- 
ing. The  regular  meetings  were  held  once  a  month. 
But  news  had  come  by  telegraph  this  morning  that  the 
whole  village  of  Mcldon  'had  been  burned  the  night  be- 
fore, and  this  night  was  the  second  day  of  December; 
Three  thousand  people  were  homeless,  or  nearly  so, 
where  yesterday  was  a  pretty,  thriving  town.  Meldon 
was  thirty  miles  from  the  rail.  Whatever  was  taken  to 
the  place  must  be  taken  on  the  backs  of  mules  and 
horses  after  it  left  the  train.  On  this  news  the  Red 
Cross  had  been  summoned  and  had  met  in  full  force. 
The  meeting  was  called  in  the  parlors  of  the  Methodist 
Church,  but  so  soon  as  it  proved  that  they  were  over- 
full, the  Presbyterian  ladies  had  gone  across  to  their 
church  and  had  started  their  fires,  so  that  a  meeting  of 
equal  size  was  in  full  blast  there.  Rachel  and  Mrs.  Tag- 
gart,  Mrs.  Trevino,  and  Mrs.  Trustum  were  of  course  at 
the  fore. 

Rachel  was  giving  her  orders. 

"  In  the  storehouse  under  Flint's  we  have  six  barrels 
of  hard-tack,  that  pork  which  came  back  from  Ilatchett's, 
and  one  cask  and  two  cases  of  boys'  clothing. 


THE    CRY    13   STIIJ,   T1IKY    COME.  I  ;>;, 

:'  Mary,  make  a  memorandum  and  give  to  Mr.  Willb. 

"  You  will  find  the  key,  Mr.  Willis,  at  Flint's,  and  I 
think  the  railroad  people  will  take  them  on  the  evening 
train  if  you  say  it  is  Red  Cross  work.  Have  you  force 
enough  to  handle  them,  Mr.  Willis  ?" 

"  Certainly,  Miss  Wolff  ;  there  is  not  a  young  man  in 
town  but  will  lend  a  hand." 

"  Yery  good  ;  then  send  me  four  young  men  who 
have  heads  on  their  shoulders,  can  read  and  write,  and 
will  not  talk  more  than  half  the  time  to  my  young  ladies 
here.  I  will  not  bother  you  any  more,  Mr.  Willis. 
Good-by,  and  thank  you  ever  so  much. 

"Laura," 

' '  Yes  ;  here  I  am  !' ' 

"  Put  on  your  hood  and  boots.  Mary,  write  this  de- 
spatch for  me  for  the  telegraph  : 

"  '  Station-master  at  Eglhiton.  Forward  by  night  ex- 
press to  Hatchett's  all  the  stores  you  have  belonging  to 
Red  Cross  which  can  possibly  be  of  service  at  Meldon. 

"  'RED  CROSS.' 

'*'  Laura,  if  a  woman  takes  this  there  will  be  no 
charge.  If  they  make  any,  pay." 

And  Laura  went.  And  so  on.  And  so  on.  The 
bended  bow  had  gone  out  at  nine  in  the  morning.  All 
day  the  energetic  chiefs  and  their  loyal  retinues  had 
been  at  work  to  meet  the  sudden  demand.  The  Military 
Academy  had  sent  down  canned  meats,  the  warehouses 
of  the  Bellerophon  were  thrown  open  to  the  Red  Cross 
order,  etc.,  etc.,  etc.  The  whole  city  knew  that  three 
thousand  people  were  to  be  fed,  perhaps  transported  to 
a  new  home.  The  city  had  not  to  organize  any  staff  for 
Buch  a  purpose.  The  Red  Cross  was  always  ready. 

The  express  passed  at  quarter  to  six.  Fifteen  minutes 
before,  Mrs.  Trustum  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and 


15G  THE    FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

Kacliel  ill  the  Methodist,  dismissed  with  thanks  their 
hearty  coadjutors,  and  with  the  promise  that  the  bells 
should  ring  in  the  morning  if  the  Red  Cross  needed 
them  again. 

Then  Rachel  took  home  with  her  Mrs.  Schumann,  a 
little  German  lady  who  had  come  over  from  Auburn  to 
join  in  the  work,  and  Mrs.  Le  Sage,  who  had  come  up 
from  the  mills  in  the  same  way,  and  whom  Rachel  had 
persuaded  to  spend  the  night  with  her.  To  complete  the 
tea-party  she  asked  Grace  Harding  and  Jane  Seaver. 
"  Alexander  and  Charles,  when  you  have  locked  up, 
come  round  and  join  us  at  tea.  Mrs.  Trustum  has  prom- 
ised to  bring  in  her  young  ladies  in  the  evening." 

With  these  hospitable  words  Rachel  locked  the  door 
of  the  church,  mounted  to  the  front  seat  of  her  sleigh, 
and  took  the  reins.  The  snow  was  falling  faster  and 
faster.  It  had  been  falling  steadily  since  noon.  She 
drove  down  the  avenue  to  find  at  her  own  door  the 
public  conveyance  from  the  railroad — a  vehicle  half 
coach,  half  sleigh,  close  covered — from  which  her  hus- 
band's head  and  in  a  moment  his  full  form  appeared. 

"  What  good  luck  brings  you  home,  my  dear  John  ?" 
cried  the  astonished  wife,  well  pleased. 

It  proved  that  a  bridge  on  the  branch  line  to  Ashland 
had  given  way,  and  that,  rather  than  wait  in  the  train 
perhaps  twenty-four  hours  for  its  repair,  the  whole 
bench  had  come  up,  together  with  the  travelling  lawyers, 
who  had  joined  the  circuit.  Of  these  Judge  Wolff  had 
brought  with  him  two  friends,  who  were  to  stay  at  his 
house,  and  whom  Rachel  welcomed  cordially. 

She  hurried  her  own  party  into  the  house,  welcomed 
the  well-known  friends  of  whom  the  Judge  had  spoken, 
and  then  discovered,  for  the  first  time,  that  in  his  party 
was  also  a  French  gentleman,  a  savant  who  had  brought 


THE   CRY    IS   STILL  THEY   COME.  157 

letters  from  New  Padua  to  her  husband,  and  whom  he  had 
met  on  the  train.  Rachel's  cordiality  was  inexhaustible, 
but  she  was  a  little  frightened  when  she  found  that  he 
did  not  speak  twenty  words  of  English,  did  not  under- 
stand ten,  and  that  she  must  bring  her  modest  French 
out  from  its  retirement. 

With  her  husband's  aid  she  lighted  the  parlor ;  she 
whispered  to  Grace  and  Jane,  who  knew  her  house  as 
•well  as  she  did  herself,  as  to  which  room  they  must  take 
the  gentlemen.  She  sent  hot  water  after  them,  and  sum- 
moned her  two  friends,  Mrs.  Le  Sage  and  Mrs.  Schu- 
mann, into  her  own  bedroom. 

"I  cannot  give  you  as  grand  quarters  as  I  meant," 
she  said,  "  but  you  will  not  mind." 

Nor  did  they  mind,  but  with  all  the  sweet  good  breed- 
ing of  the  best  Western  hospitality  gave  themselves  up 
to  the  business  not  merely  of  welcoming  these  strangers, 
but  of  making  everything  pass  simply  and  easiljr.  When 
the  French  savant  wrote  home  he  gave  to  his  wife  the 
impression  which  he  had  himself  received,  that  the  house 
was  twice  as  large  as  it  was,  and  had  a  staff  of  invisible 
servants. 

As  soon  as  Rachel's  young  friends,  Charles  and  Alex- 
ander, came  in,  she  bade  one  of  them  telephone  to  the 
Military  Academy  and  ask  Professor  Hackett,  the  teacher 
of  natural  history,  to  come  down  and  to  bring  George 
Barber  with  him,  and  anybody  else  who  could  talk 
French,  or  anybody  who  cared  for  botany. 

When  Dr.  Decandolle  appeared  after  his  ablutions  and 
the  other  requisitions  of  his  toilet,  Rachel  gave  him  over, 
in  her  own  best  French,  to  Mrs.  Le  Sage,  who  was  only 
too  happy  to  be  his  guide,  philosopher,  and  friend. 
Mrs.  Le  Sage  and  her  husband  were  both  from  the  coast 
on  the  river  above  New  Orleans,  and  she  spoke  with  that 


158  THE    FORTUNES   OF    HACHEL. 

pure  French  of  the  best  Creole  families  which  is  always 
a  delight  to  exiled  Parisians,  travel- worn  and  long-suffer- 
ing. 

Rachel  gave  some  general  directions  iu  her  kitchen, 
and  left  them  to  work  themselves  out  by  their  own  evo- 
lution. 

As  a  matter  of  course  Jane  and  Grace,  who  had  come 
in  only  as  guests,  took  the  part  of  assistant  hostesses  as 
soon  as  they  found  that  this  flood  of  unexpected  visitors 
had  poured  in.  Rachel,  indeed,  never  thought  of  asking 
them  to  take  this  post,  nor  did  they  think  it  necessary  in 
form  to  offer.  They  loved  her  and  she  loved  them — that 
was  enough.  They  saw  that  their  services  were  needed, 
and  those  services  they  gave.  Xo  etiquette  compelled, 
but  on  the  other  hand  no  etiquette  hindered.  And, 
exactly  as  in  the  morning  they  had  gone  to  the  relief  of 
the  people  who  had  been  burned  out  at  Meldon,  so  they 
now  came  to  Rachel's  relief  when  her  hospitality  was  so 
severely  tested. 

In  an  incredibly  short  space  of  time  the  table  in  the 
dining-room  was  stretched  to  its  full  length  and  prettily 
arranged.  The  best  china  had  been  designated  by  the 
Indian  girl  in  the  kitchen,  and  had  been  nicely  set  in 
such  a  way  as  pleased  Grace's  eye  ;  and  Jane  had  sent  one 
of  the  boys,  as  she  called  them,  across  to  her  father  to 
cut  such  straggling  flowers  as  he  could  find  in  her  little 
conservatory,  lest  the  Frenchman  should  feel  solitary  for 
lack  of  something  that  was  alive,  Biscuits  and  "  tea- 
cakes,"  in  forms  not  to  be  described  by  this  modest  pen, 
piled  the  board  with  lavish  luxury,  while  cold  meats  and 
hot  oysters,  two  thousand  miles  from  their  cool  birth- 
places in  the  Chesapeake,  provided  substantial  refresh- 
ment for  those  who  had  travelled  two  or  three  hundred 
miles  since  morning,  as  some  of  the  guests  had  done. 


THE   CKY    IS   STILL  THEY   COME.  1J!) 

Just  as  they  sat  down,  Professor  Hackett  and  two  or 
three  of  his  pupils  appeared,  one  of  whom  was  the 
George  Barber  whom  Kachel  had  asked  for.  Before 
they  came  into  the  parlor  a  good  deal  of  clatter  and 
laughter  could  be  heard  in  the  hall,  and  this  was  ex- 
plained when  they  came  in.  The  snow  was  gathering  so 
fast  that  they  had  doubted  about  their  return.  They 
had  all  come  down  therefore  on  snow-shoes — not  neces- 
sary, perhaps,  but  convenient.  It  was  the  fun  with 
which  they  explained  this,  and  the  noise  made  by  stack- 
ing them  under  the  porch,  which  had  made  all  this  row 
on  their  entry. 

All  this  was  unfolded  in  detail  by  Mrs.  Lc  Sage  to  the 
wondering  Dr.  Decandollc,  who  was  at  that  moment 
turning  over  a  portfolio  of  French  etchings,  which,  as  he 
told  her,  he  had  never  seen  in  Paris.  "  Ah,  my  friend,'' ' 
ho  said  in  reply  in  his  own  language,  "  I  shall  never  un- 
derstand your  country.  At  one  moment  and  the  same  I 
am  in  Paris  with  my  friends,  Jacquemart  and  Flameng, 
and  you  talk  to  me  of  shoes  for  snow  in  words  which  be- 
long to  the — what  shall  I  say  ? — the  shores  of  the  wilder- 
ness. I  am  like  a  voyager  in  the  icebergs,  who  lands  to 
study  a  crevasse,  and  he  finds  the  flames  of  the  tropics." 

At  which  moment  the  Professor  was  happily  deposited 
at  the  table  at  Rachel's  left,  and,  as  he  found  his  place, 
lo  !  two  or  three  branches  of  blazing  Euphorbia,  which 
Alexander  Mitchell,  with  a  hand  rather  too  free,  had  cut 
from  a  fine  shrub  he  had  found  in  Jane's  little  conserv- 
atory. 

"It  is  impossible,"  said  the  man  of  science.  "  It  is 
all  a  dream.  You  do  not  tell  me  that  the  Poinsettia  is 
to  be  found  among  your  evergreens  at  this  season  !  1 
came  to  study  cactuses,  and  I  find  pines.  I  study  pines, 
and  you  show  me—" 


160  THE    FOKTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

But  at  that  moment  the  Ute  girl  from  the  kitchen, 
who  was  attending  that  end  of  the  table,  and  had  just 
given  the  unconscious  botanist  his  coffee,  came  round  into 
his  full  view.  She  was  the  first  full-blooded  Indian  he 
had  seen.  High  cheek-bones,  raven  hair  prettily  dressed 
with  a  bit  of  scarlet  ribbon,  a  head  curiously  set  on  the 
shoulders,  a  curious  heaviness,  not  uninteresting,  in  the 
movement  of  eyelid  and  eye — all  characterized  a  race 
with  which  the  man  of  science  was  not  in  the  least 
familiar.  Kor  was  the  position  the  less  queer  because 
the  girl  was  offering  a  pretty  cup  and  saucer  of  French 
china  to  Mrs.  Schumann.  The  Professor's  speech  broke 
down,  as  he  would  have  stopped  talking  had  a  butterfly 
wholly  new  crossed  his  path  in  the  woods,  or  had  he 
come  across  an  orchid  in  the  Bois  du  Boulogne.  He 
looked  at  the  other  end  of  the  table  to  see  if  there  were 
any  more  specimens,  possibly  interested  in  hearing  the 
conversation  of  the  race.  And  there  was  pretty  Jane 
Seaver  standing  behind  young  Mitchell  with  a  silver 
salver,  offering  him  some  muffins  and  joking  with  him  as 
she  did  so.  And  the  Professor  subsided  for  an  instant, 
and  was  hardly  understood  when  he  said  to  Mr.  Le  Sage  : 

"  1  am  reminded  every  moment  of  a  geological  paper 
of  my  friend  Agassiz  on  '  the  impossibility  of  reconciling 
the  American  stratifications. '  ' 

"  Stay  with  us  long  enough,  Professor,  and  wo  will 
teach  you  the  law."  - 

And  now  Mrs.  Le  Sage  found  why  George  Barber  h  1 
been  sent  for.  George  Barber  not  only  spoke  French  en.- 
ly,  but  had  made  a  study  of  the  local  flora  of  the  region 
for  a  hundred  miles  round.  He  was  in  correspondence 
with  the  Smithsonian,  and,  through  them,  with  half  the 
rest  of  the  world.  So  in  two  minutes  he  was  answering 
the  Professor's  questions,  solving  his  doubts,  and  was  in  a 


THE   CRY   IS   STILL   THEY   COME.  1G1 

fair  way  to  provide  him  with  five  years'  good  occupation 
in  the  mountains  and  canons.  Alexander  Mitchell  had 
given  the  academy  party  a  hint  of  the  company  they 
were  to  meet,  and  Professor  Hackett  and  George  had 
brought  down  with  them  two  or  three  portfolios  of  dried 
plants,  with  which,  as  the  evening  Went  on,  they  were 
able  to  illustrate  their  scientific  conversation. 

The  Professor,  who  knew  that  his  arrival  was  not  ex- 
pected, was  as  much  amazed  by  this  rencontre  as  he  was 
by  the  blaze  of  the  Euphorbia.  He  had  not  become 
habituated  to  the  telephone,  and  seeing  that  these  gentle- 
men joined  the  party  about  the  time  he  did,  he  imagined 
that  they  also  were  accidental  guests.  Unconsciously, 
therefore,  he  credited  the  average  citizen  of  the  State 
with  the  range  of  scientific  information,  not  to  say  with 
the  ease  in  the  French  language,  which  these  two  gentle- 
men showed.  Kor,  if  it  had  been  explained  to  him  for 
a  week,  would  he  ever  have  understood  that  if  he  had 
not  come  they  would  not  have  come,  but  that  they  had 
been  selected  by  his  hostess  as  the  best  she  could  find  for 
him. 

They  lingered,  as  well  they  might  do,  after  their 
day's  experiences,  over  the  tempting  table.  "When  at 
last  they  had  regained  the  parlor,  just  as  there  was  talk 
of  some  music,  more  guests  appeared,  and  proved  to  be 
Mrs.  Trustum  "with  her  young  ladies. "  They  were  a 
group  of  pretty  girls  from  Milwaukee  who  were  visiting 
at  her  house,  and  they  also  had  been  lending  a  hand  in 
.the  labors  of  the  day. 

"  But,  Rachel,  1  do  not  think  you  know  what  a  storm 
it  is.  The  girls  put  on  their  boots,  but  there  was  not 
one  of  us  who  could  wade  to  the  gate,  and  if  we  had 
come  to  it  we  could  not  have  opened  it.  I  made  John 
Gyer  harness  his  horses,  and  we  have  all  ridden.  That 


162  THE    FORTUNES    OF    RACHEL. 

will  go  into  history.  '  The  celebrated  snow-storm  in 
which  Mrs.  Trustnm  was  obliged  to  drive  across  the 
avenue.'  " 

And  the  girls  looked  very  pretty  and  rosy  after  their 
exposure  to  mountain  weather. 

But  where  was  Judge  Trust  um  ?  He  had  not  been  on 
the  circuit  with  the  other  lawyers. 

The  Judge  had  gone  to  the  hotel  to  call  on  some  Eng- 
lish gentlemen  who  had  come  in  from  the  West  and 
brought  him  letters.  "  I  told  him  if  the  gentlemen 
were  young  and  nice,  to  bring  them  here.  But  1  told 
him  if  they  wanted  to  talk  about  wills  and  reversions  and 
chancery  and  pokery,  he  might  stay  at  the  hotel.  But, 
whether  any  of  them  come  here,  whether  they  do  not 
spend  the  rest  of  their  lives  at  the  Meriwether  House,  I 
am  doubtful.  In  that  case  we  will  spend  ours  here." 

!Nor  did  this  seem  such  an  unhappy  outlook  when  one 
saw  the  delighted  Professor  lecturing  about  ferns  to  de- 
lighted hearers,  Mr.  "Wendell  and  Mr.  Fay  well  pleased 
to  talk  with  Mrs.'  Schumann  and  our  pretty  Grace 
Harding,  the  Academy  lads  sorted  out  with  the  Mil- 
waukee girls,  and  the  other  members  of  the  company 
disposed  to  their  minds.  But  it  was  not  long  before 
new  trampling  in  the  porch  and  hall  showed  that  other 
guests  were  working  in  through  the  snow.  Judge  Trus- 
tum  had  found  the  new  arrivals  pleasant,  and  the  arrange- 
ments at  the  Meriwether  dull.  He  had  sent  his  own 
carriage  away.  But  in  the  covered  sleigh  which  plied  in 
all  directions  from  the  Meriwether,  he  had  brought  in 
Lord  Widdington,  a  young  English  nobleman,  who  was 
making  the  tour  of  the  world  with  his  tutor  and  phy- 
sician, Dr.  Winkworth.  To  them  the  Judge  had  added, 
lest  his  party  should  seem  incomplete,  the  celebrated  Dr. 
Hainmersteinj  a  German  geologist,  whom  the  host  at 


THE   CRY    IS   STILL  THEY   COME.  163 

the  Meriwether  had  introduced  to  him.  For  this  ho 
apologized  to  Rachel : 

"  It  seemed  a  little  hard  to  leave  him  all  alone,  when 
we  were  all  talking  together  there.  And  I  knew  you 
would  excuse  me.  I  telephoned  to  Lang,  and  told  him 
if  he  looked  in  he  would  find  the  man  here,  so  you  will 
not  have  to  entertain  him." 

Rachel  assured  the  Judge  that  there  was  no  need  of 
apology,  and  in  point  of  fact,  Lang,  who  was  the  State 
geologist,  came  in  in  a  few  minutes.  It  proved  at  once, 
of  course,  that  he  and  Hammerstein  had  studied  together 
at  Freiburg,  and  there  was  thus  a  meeting  of  old 
friends. 

The  young  Englishman  proved  jolly  and  companion- 
able. Dr.  Winkworth  was  in  his  element,  both  with 
geologists  and  botanists.  Mrs.  Schumann  played  when 
they  wanted  music,  and  when  they  did  not  she  did  not. 
Before  long  some  of  the  young  people  asked  leave  to 
retire  and  prepare  an  impromptu  charade,  which  Lord 
Widdington  had  seen  done  at  Honolulu,  but  which  they 
thought  could  be  improved  upon.  So  they  were  turned 
loose  into  the  entry,  and  used  the  wraps  of  the  guests 
for  the  wardrobe  of  their  extempore  theatre.  With 
great  success  they  performed,  first  Haec-Thor  and  after- 
ward Bed-Lamb.  Indeed,  things  went  on  so  pleasantly 
at  this  improvised  party  that  when  the  hall  clock  struck 
for  midnight  every  one  was  surprised. 

"  Where  in  the  world  is  John  Gyer  ?"  cried  Mrs. 
Trusttirn.  "  Cyrus,  do  look  out  and  see  if  John  Gyer  is 
freezing  in  the  storm.  I  told  him  to  be  here  at  half- 
past  eleven.  Indeed,  Dr.  Winkworth,  I  have,  as  yon 
see,  to  supply  all  the  decorum  and  dignity  for  this  com- 
pany, in  both  the  houses.  These  young  people  wrrc 
dancing  the  German  till  two  this  morning,  and  to-night 


164  THE   FORTUNES    OF   RACHEL. 

1  was  to  have  tucked  them  all  up  in  their  beds  before 
midnight. 

"  Where  in  the  world  is  John  Gyer  ?" 

At  which  very  moment  a  peal  at  the  door-bell  announced 
John  Gyer.  In  an  effort  to  work  through  the  driveway 
from  his  own  stables  his  horses  had  been  stalled  in  the 
snow  before  he  was  well  in  the  street.  In  their  struggles 
to  free  themselves  "  the  thills  was  smashed,"  as  John 
put  it,  while  the  horses  were  still  in  the  drift.  John  had 
done  such  work  as  he  could  to  relieve  them,  and  had 
finally  with  difficulty,  which  the  snow  on  his  person 
revealed,  struggled  across  for  help  to  John  "Wolffs 
house,  where,  as  he  knew,  he  could  summon  a  force  of 
men. 

On  the  instant  the  most  competent  arrayed  themselves 
for  the  duty.  These  were,  naturally,  the  Academy 
boys,  M'ith  their  fortunate  provision  of  snow-shoes. 
"With  these  they  would  readily  run  across  the  five  hun- 
dred yards — here  six  feet  deep  with  light  snow,  there 
wholly  bare — which  separated  the  houses  of  the  two 
judges. 

The  English  gentlemen  and  the  French  and  German 
naturalists,  ready,  like  gentlemen,  to  be  of  service,  stood, 
naturally  enough,  a  little  doubtful  what  service  they 
were  to  render. 

But  John  Wolff  did  his  best  to  put  them  at  ease. 

"  You  must  not  think  of  your  quarters  at  the  Meri- 
wether.  Their  man  cannot  come  here,  nor  can  you  go 
there.  You  will  not  understand  till  morning  how  four 
quiet  hours  of  snowfall  can  change  the  condition  of 
affairs.  Mrs.  Wolff  will  shake  down  something  for  you 
to  sleep  upon,  and  will  make  you — well,  as  comfortable 
as  if  you  were  sitting  bolt  upright  as  third-class  passen- 
gers when  the  train  is  not  on  time." 


THE   CRY   IS   STILL  THEY   COME.  1G5 

George  Barber  returned  in  twenty  minutes.  The 
horses  were  unhurt,  so  far  as  wounds  went,  and  were 
back  in  the  stable,  where  John  Gyer  was  rubbing  them 
dry.  The  sleigh  was  a  wreck,  and  clearly  it  was  hope- 
less to  try  the  same  experiment  with  another.  Judge 
Trustum,  therefore,  had  sent  back  Professor  JIaekett's 
snow-shoes,  and  had  instructed  George  to  suggest  to 
Mrs.  Trustum  that  she  and  the  Milwaukee  ladies  had 
better  spend  the  night  with  Mrs.  Wolff. 

"  I  do  not  see  that  Mrs.  Wolff  can  help  herself,"  cried 
Mrs.  Trustum  gayly. 

Lord  Widdington  asked  if  they  might  not  have  one 
more  charade,  and,  in  fact,  they  had  two.  Then  the 
party  for  the  Academy  made  a  start,  in  face  of  John 
Wolff's  protest.  In  fifteen  minutes  they  returned  foiled. 
Mr.  Hackett  would  not  risk  it,  he  said. 

Two  more  charades  ;  the  clock  struck  two,  and  then 
Eachel  sent  them  all  to  bed. 

Who  slept  on  the  floor  of  the  office,  who  slept  on 
lounges  in  the  parlors,  who  slept  on  buffalo-robes  in  the 
attic,  it  is  no  part  of  this  tale  to  tell. 

But  never  met  a  jollier  party  than  the  company  at 
breakfast,  when  a  sky  of  the  deepest  blue  overarched  a 
world  buried  in  snow  ;  and  in  various  languages,  and 
with  a  thousand  jokes,  KachePs  unexpected  guests  assured 
her  that  they  never  slept  better  in  their  lives. 

As  the  last  of  the  gentlemen  among  her  guests  bade 
her  good-by,  when  the  road-breakers  had  rendered  any 
motion  possible,  Kachel  turned  to  Mrs.  Schumann  and 
Mrs.  Le  Sage  and  said  : 

"  So  much  for  one  day.  Now  we  will  see  what  another 
may  bring  forth.  Susie,  dear,  bring  your  sampler,  and 
Mrs.  Schumann  will  show  you  how  to  make  that  W  we 
bothered  over." 


CHAPTER  XYIL 

CLOUD     AND     STORM. 

"  After  this,  she  thought  she  saw  two  very  ill-favored  ones  stand- 
ing by  her  and  saying,  '  What  shall  we  do  with  this  woman?'  " — 
J.  Bunt/an. 

SUCH  was  one  of  Rachel's  days.  And  of  hundreds  of 
days,  each  wholly  unlike  this,  the  history  might  be  told. 

John,  of  course,  was  away  on  circuit  nearly  three 
months  out  of  four.  In  his  absence  Rachel  acquired 
something  of  that  poise  and  self-dependence  which  they 
Bay  those  charming  daughters  of  Nantucket  gained  when 
their  husbands,  sons,  and  brothers  were  away  on  cruises 
three  years  long.  To  repeat  the  proverb  which  has  been 
cited  before,  she  could  "  paddle  her  own  canoe."  And 
when  her  oldest  boy  was  five  years  old,  he  had  persuaded 
himself  that  in  his  father's  absence  he  was  a  material 
help  in  the  fortunes  of  the  family.  As  he  filled  his  little 
cart  with  chips  for  the  kitchen  stove,  Ephraim  Tait,  who 
was  splitting  the  logs  for  it,  addressed  the  boy  to  give 
him  counsel  in  this  matter  : 

"Doctor,  wat  ye're  doin'  's  in  the  right  line. 
"Wen  you's  five  you's  to  hev  a  hatchet  yourself.  I  told 
ye  mother  so,  '11  she  agreed.  They's  no  use  in  ye 
goin'  to  school,  doctor.  I  told  ye  mother  so,  'n  she 
agreed.  Wen  they's  as  many  books  's  they  be  in  the 
office,  it'll  kinder  soak  in.  I's  often  seen  that.  Books 
is  nothin'  to  knowin'  how  to  work  young.  I  shall  take 
keer  of  that,  doctor.  I  told  ye  mother  so,  'n  she 
agreed.  Pack  the  chips  into  the  kitchen,  doctor." 


CLOUD    AND   8TOUM.  1C7 

Little  Bill,  who  Lad  accepted  since  he  was  two  days 
old  the  title  of  "  doctor,"  conferred  by  Ephraim's  Uni- 
versity, gladly  acceded  to  any  theory  of  education  which 
kept  him  from  the  kindergarten,  to  which  Tom  Trustnm 
had  to  proceed  daily.  To  tell  the  truth,  Ephraim  Taifc 
had  most  of  the  qualifications  needed  for  a  skilful  "  kin- 
dergartner,"  had  the  experts  in  that  affair  had  the  wit  to 
discover  his  qualifications.  Rachel  had. 

But  this  little  book  is  not  written  to  tell  the  fortunes 
of  a  rising  metropolis  or  of  Rachel's  children,  but  only 
the  turning  incidents  in  her  fortunes.  It  was  in  the 
summer  of  the  seventh  year  of  their  stay  here  that  on 
the  sky  of  their  life,  clear  enough  till  now,  there  gath- 
ered a  cloud,  as  big  as  a  man's  hand,  which  soon  took 
larger  proportions. 

Rachel  did  not  see  the  cloud  fro.m  any  window.  Nor 
did  she  learn  of  the  cloud  first  from  the  oracles  of  the 
Daily  Irrepressible  or  the  Frontier  Blackguard^  though 
before  the  cloud  broke  she  watched  for  those  signs  of 
the  times  with  feverish  curiosity.  Ephraim  Tait  first 
made  her  aware  that  any  cloud  was  rising. 

"  I  see  Jem  Stiles  wen  I  was  waitin'  at  the  depot,  'n 
he  sez,  sez  he,  that  old  Trustum  'n  the  Jedge  hed  better 
hurry  up  thet  decision,  or  they'd  be  kingdom  come 
round  the  Court  House.  I  told  him  to  shet  up  ;  'n  sez 
I,  ef  you  don't  hold  your  jawye'llgit  chosen  Jedge  your- 
self, 'n  then,  sez  I,  wen  you  *n  Boilers  go  on  circuit,  sez 
I,  they'll  be  two  burros  on  one  bench,  sez  I.  'N  'e  shet 
up  mighty  quick,  I  tell  ye." 

Just  what  '"  kingdom  come  round  the  Court  House" 
meant  Rachel  did  not  know,  and  she  was  quite  too  proud 
to  ask  Ephraim.  A  telegram  had  told  her  that  her  hus- 
band, whom  she  expected,  would  not  leave  Ashland  foi 
three  or  four  days  more. 


168  THE  "FORTUNES    OF    RACHEL. 

So  in  her  evening's  letter  she  asked  what  "  kingdom 
come"  would  be. 

In  John  Wolff's  note  of  reply  were  these  words  : 

"It  is  pathetic  enough,  that  you,  of  all  the  world, 
should  not  know  of  the  creak  and  strain  about  '  Waddles 
et  al.  Trustees,  in  appeal  vs.  Cook  and  Hunter.'  It  is 
the  great  railroad  case — of  which  you  do  know — and  a 
crew  of  people  have  persuaded  themselves  that  the  world 
will  come  to  an  end  if  we  do  not  decide  the  wrong  way. 
It  is  really  this  decision  which  keeps  us  here,  but  it  will 
not  be  read  till  I  come  home." 

Such  warning  had  Rachel,  and  only  such  warning,  for 
a  state  visit  which  she  received  at  eight  in  the  evening 
the  day  before  her  husband  was  expected. 

She  had  just  heard  the  children  say  their  prayers,  and 
had  run  down-stairs  to  write  a  letter  to  Cecilia.  Rather 
to  her  surprise  one  of  the  "  hacks"  from  the  Metropoli- 
tan Hotel  drove  up,  and  two  stately  gentlemen,  not  quite 
in  the  costume  of  the  frontier,  came  to  the  door  and 
rang. 

Rachel  answered  the  bell  herself,  as  was  the  not  infre- 
quent custom  in  this  capital. 

A  short,  nervous,  quick -speaking  man,  dressed  with 
the  utmost  precision  and  bearing  a  gold-headed  cane, 
offered  her  two  cards. 

"  Ask  Mrs.  Wolff,  if  she  will  see  Mr.  Hudson  and  Mr. 
Tremlett." 

Rachel  recognized  instantly  the  names  of  two  of  the 
great  railway  kings  of  that  day — if  indeed  one  do  not  say 
Moguls.  She  named  herself,  and  showed  them  into  her 
pretty  parlor. 

Mr.  Hudson  was  quite  too  nervous  for  study  of  the 
scene.  Mr.  Tremlett  looked  round  with  interest  on  the 
prints  on  the  walls,  on  the  music  on  the  open  piano,  with 


CLOUD    AND    STORJI.  ICfl 

a  little  of  the  air  with  which  Lieutenant  Greely  might 
throw  a  glance  around  the  interior  of  the  snow-hut  of  a 
hospitable  Eskimo. 

"  We  have  come  from- New  York,"  said  Mr.  Hudson, 
nervously,  "  on  this  business.  And  now  I  learn  your 
husband  is  away." 

"  My  husband  is  away,  but  I  expect  him  to-morrow. 
Can  you  leave  no  message  ?  What  is  the  business  ?" 

Message  \  business  I  Did  this  little  woman  really  sup- 
pose that  the  critical  twist  in  this  Waddles  and  Cook 
matter  was  to  be  explained  in  ten  words  which  might 
have  been  spoken  on  a  doorstep  ?  Certainly  women  are 
fools  I  Such,  in  substance,  was  the  internal  reflection  of 
Mr.  Hudson,  and  his  first  impression  was  that  this  par- 
ticular woman  must  be  suppressed,  or,  as  he  would  have 
said,  "  sate  upon." 

"  No,  madam,  I  can  leave  no  message.  I  have  trav- 
elled two  thousand  miles  because  what  I  have  to  say  is 
not  of  a  character  to  be  written  down." 

Kachel  saw  that  he  was  enraged.  But  she  did  not 
know  why.  She  did  not  very  much  care,  unless  she  had 
made  a  blunder. 

"  I  have  a  telegram  from  Ashland,"  she  said.  "  The 
judges  all  leave  to-morrow  morning,  and  will  be  here  to- 
morrow night." 

Mr.  Hudson  smiled  grimly.  "  Of  those  facts  I  was 
aware.  My  people  in  Ashland  know  that  I  have  arrived. 
It  will  be  necessary,  as  you  will  understand,  I  suppose, 
that  I  shall  see  your  husband  on  his  arrival." 

"  I  know  he  will  be  very  glad  to  see  you,"  said 
Rachel,  her  thought  taking  instantly  the  hospitable  turn. 
' '  Perhaps  you  will  take  tea  with  him— and  your  friend  ?— 
a  little  late  I  suppose  the  train  will  be.  The  Grand  Sierra, 
you  know,  is  too  grand  to  be  punctual."  Then,  with  a 


170  THE   FORTUNES    OF    RACHEL. 

wish  to  conciliate  or  relieve  this  anxious  face,  the  uncon- 
scious woman  added,  "  Are  you  quite  comfortable  at  the 
Metropolitan  ?  I  should  be  so  glad  if  you  would  send 
your  trunks  here." 

"  There  are  several  of  us,  Mrs.  Wolff,  and  we  cannot 
well  separate.  Mr.  Talfourd  is  with  us,  and  Mr.  James — 
perhaps  you  have  heard  those  names — the  most  distin- 
guished counsel  in  New  York.  We  have  thought  that 
even  the  legal  lights  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  might  not 
dislike  to  confer  with  these  gentlemen." 

What  in  the  world  was  the  matter  ?  Rachel  did  not 
understand  these  oracles,  only  she  did  suppose  that  the 
arrival  of  Messrs.  Talfourd  and  James  meant  "  kingdom 
come  at  the  Court  House."  Still  intent  on  her  hospital- 
ity, she  said,  "  Pray,  bring  any  of  your  friends  with 
you.  Judge  Wolff  will  be  very  glad  to  see  you  all." 

Actually  this  woman  thought  that  the  appeal  of  the 
trustees  and  the  essential  decision  in  chancery,  on  which 
turned  the  rights  of  thousands  upon  thousands  of  bond- 
holders and  stockholders,  was  a  matter  to  be  talked  over 
between  tea  and  coffee,  as  a  question  side  by  side  with 
"  Will  you  have  plum  or  quince?"  Mr.  Hudson  was 
wellnigh  beside  himself  with  this  absurd  Oread  sim- 
plicity. 

"  I  think  that  Judge  Wolff  will  perhaps  do  us  the 
favor  to  call  upon  us  when  he  knows  that  we  are  here." 
This  he  said  with  all  the  dignity  of  millions. 

"  1  will  tell  him  that  you  are  here,"  said  Rachel,  with 
some  dignity  on  her  part.  She  would  have  liked  to  say 
that  in  the  mountains  it  was  not  the  custom  for  the  court 
to  call  upon  counsel,  however  distinguished,  but  she  bit 
her  lip  and  said  nothing. 

Mr.  Tremlett,  who  had  been  silent  till  now,  was 
enough  of  a  mind  reader  to  interpret  her  thought.  He 


CLOUD    AtfD   STORM.  171 

had  been  annoyed  from  the  beginning  by  the  nervous- 
ness and  consequent  presumption  of  his  companion.  lie 
tried  to  mend  matters  by  saying,  "  Of  course  we  do  not 
expect  any  further  legal  discussion.  All  that  Mr.  Hudson 
means  is  a  friendly  call  on  our  large  party." 

But  poor  Mr.  Hudson,  a  grandee  at  home,  and  very 
much  used  to  having  people  "  stand  round,"  as  the  ver- 
nacular puts  it,  was  quite  worn  out  by  three  nights  of 
sleep  upon  the  rail,  even  in  his  own  private  palace,  and 
he  took  offence  even  at  the  words  of  his  chief  of  staff. 

"  Friendly  ?  Tes,  I  hope  it  will  be  friendly.  I  do 
not  think  that  even*  chief- justices  would  care  to  make 
war  against  the  Grand  Sierra  and  the  Inter-Oceanic 
together.  If  they  do  mean  war,  it  shall  be  war  to  the 
knife." 

War  to  the  knife  !  Was  this  man  crazy  ?  Rachel 
looked  instinctively  at  Mr.  Tremlett,  and  from  his  almost 
entreating  eye  received  the  instant  signal  which  meant 
"  Do  not  care  in  the  least  for  what  he  says.  You  and  I 
are  allies,  and  we  must  both  humor  him."  So  Rachel 
answered  good-naturedly,  "  Oh,  you  must  not  think  of 
knives,  Mr.  Hudson,  because  you  have  come  into  the 
mountains.  Indeed,  I  never  saw  a  grizzly  in  my  life. 
That  skin  your  feet  are  on  seems  savage  to  you,  but  it  is 
a  present  an  old  trapper  made  to  my  husband.  It  was 
really  very  funny,  Mr.  Tremlett.  My  husband  married 
him  seven  years  ago,  and  he  paid  no  fee,  and  only  last 
month  he  brought  this  skin  to  show  his  gratitude.  But 
indeed,  Mr.  Hudson,  there  are  very  few  grizzlies  now." 

So  chattering,  Rachel  did  her  best,  by  as  many  separate 
points  as  she  could,  to  draw  the  pent-up  lightning  from 
the  cloud.  Nor  did  she  wholly  fail.  Mr.  Tremlett 
caught  at  the  cue,  and  almost  to  Mr.  Hudson's  surprise 
they  were  in  another  mimito  nil  talking  about  the  her.- 


172  THE   FORTUNES    OF    RACHEL. 

efits  which  the  Grand  Sierra  had  brought  to  the  State. 
They  were  discussing  Mr.  Whitwell  and  Mr.  Parker,  the 
fine  young  engineers  who  were  running  the  branch  line 
to  New  Potosi. 

"  You  must  not  send  us  many  of  such  nice  young  men, 
Mr.  Hudson" — this  was  Rachel's  conciliatory  speech. 
"  All  our  girls  are  crazy  to  go  on  excursions  to  seethe 
works,  and  the  whole  social  life  of  the  city  is  demoral- 
ized." As  if  the  great  Mr.  Hudson  had  even  heard  the 
names  of  Mr.  Whitwell  or  Mr.  Parker  ! 

It  was  not  Mr.  Tremlett's  first  experience  in  managing 
a  crazy  lion,  and  as  for  our  dear  Rachel,  I  believe  she 
could  have  walked,  like  Una,  among  twenty  of  them, 
and  that  she  would  not  have  been  afraid  of  them.  She 
rang  the  bell,  and  the  •well-trained  Utegirl,  whom  Rachel 
had  picked  up  at  one  of  the  agencies,  came  in  with  a 
cup  of  tea  and  some  hot  muffins.  The  gentlemen  did 
not  know  they  were  hungry,  perhaps  were  not  ;  but 
even  to  careless  men  there  is  a  certain  sacramental  power 
in  the  breaking  of  bread  and  the  passing  the  cup,  and 
before  the  hour  was  over  the  great  railway  king  was 
happier  and  more  genial  than  he  had  been,  since  that 
horrid  moment  when  a  long  despatch  from  his  counsel 
had  called  him  from  his  luxurious  palace  on  the  Fifth 
Avenue  to  a  pretentious  third-class  hotel  in  a  valley  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains.  Meanwhile,  to  his  own  amaze- 
ment, "  the  driver"  of  the  "  Metropolitan  hack"  was 
pacing  up  and  down  the  plank  walk,  wondering  what 
these  blamed  tenderfeet  from  Chicago  had  to  say  to 
Miss  Wolff  to  keep  them  so  long. 

To  the  driver  Chicago  was  the  farthest  East. 

Rachel's  little  French  clock  struck  ten  almost  spite- 
fully, just  in  the  pause  after  a  bright  story  by  Mr.  Trem- 
lett  of  his  experiences  in  Siberia.  "How  late  it  is!" 


CLOUD   AND   STORM.  173 

said  Mr.  Hudson,  starting  with  real  surprise.  "  Trem- 
lett,  we  are  keeping  that  carriage  waiting.  Will  you  see 
where  the  man  has  gone  ?  I  want  to  say  a  word  to  Mrs. 
Wolff."  Mr.  Tremlettleft  the  room  looking  troubled, 
and  as  he  .closed  the  door  gave  Kachel  that  eager  look  of 
entreaty  again. 

To  her  inexpressible  amazement,  the  great  man  took 
her  hand  and  said,  "I  am  afraid  I  was  uncivil  when  I 
came  in.  I  did  not  sleep  well  on  the  Plains.  I  am  so 
glad  to  count  you  among  our  friends.  Our  correspond- 
ents spoke  as  if  you  were  all  our  enemies." 

"  Enemies  !' '  said  the  unconscious  Kachel ;  "  why,  Mr. 
Hudson,  you  have  not  an  enemy  in  the  State.  We  all 
know  what  we  owe  to  the  Grand  Sierra,  and  the  very 
children  named  their  sleds  Inter-Ocean." 

"  I  wish  I  thought  so,"  said  Mr.  Hudson,  flashing  up 
again.  "  We  must  hope  that  that  time  will  come. 
Meanwhile,  as  it  has  not  come,  and  the  lamb  cannot  lie 
down  on  the  lion,  I  am  glad  you  are  on  our  side." 
Rachel  stared,  but  said  nothing. 

"  I  was  very  angry,"  he  continued  ;  "  perhaps  I 
showed  some  signs  of  it.  After  my  long  journey,  to 
find  that  your  excellent  husband  was  away.  Indeed,  we 
needed  to  consult  him.  Our  advice  here  'is  not  of  the 
best.  If  it  had  been,  things  would  not  be  where  they 
are.  But  now,  dear  Mrs.  Wolff,  that  we  are  such  good 
friends,  I  shall  go  away  sure  that  we  have  one  advocate 
here.  I  hope  we  may  have  more.  I  can  talk  to  you 
better  than  I  can  talk  to  any  one."  And  he  paused  for 
a  moment,  and  Rachel  wondered  whether  he  were  stark 
mad.  He  did  not  seem  to  find  it  so  very  easy  to  talk  to 
her.  But  in  a  moment  he  rallied. 

"  Some  things  are  said  better  than  written,  perhaps. 
And  then  I  am  glad  to  know  how  engaging  and  success- 


174  THE  FORTUNES   OF   RACHEL. 

ful  an  advocate  we  have  with  this  stern  judge,  who  has 
our  destinies  in  his  hands.  I  am  quite  sure  he  can  refuse 
you  nothing.  Dear  Mrs.  Wolff,  if  it  should  happen 
next  Thursday  that  he  is  not  well  enough  to  go  into 
court,  and  if  he  decline  to  give  an  opinion  at  this  term 
of  court,  while  his  nerves  are  unsettled,  there  will  be 
fifty  thousand  dollars  at  your  account  in  the  Bank  of  the 
Metropolis  in  New  York.  And,  if  you  can  persuade 
him  not  to  offer  himself  as  candidate  at  this  election,  but 
to  accept  a  retainer  from  us  as  our  counsel  here,  he  may 
be  sure  of  that  position." 

He  had  to  hurry  these  last  words  ;  and  well  he  might, 
for  "Rachel  had  started  to  her  feet  and  was  even  protect- 
ing herself  by  her  chair,  as  if  a  wild  beast  were  indeed 
before  her. 

"  Do  you  insult  me  in  my  own  house  ?  Am  I  mad, 
or  are  you  ?  Because  money  can  buy  iron  and  moun- 
tains, do  you  think  it  can  buy  men  and  women  ?  You 
shall  not  speak  another  word  to  me,"  and  she  put  her 
hand  upon  the  handle  of  the  door  that  she  might  take 
refuge  in  her  kitchen  and  leave  him  alone.  But  the 
railway  king  detained  her.  "  You  do  not  see,"  he  said, 
"  you  do  not  understand.  You  are  in  our  power  ;  both  of 
you  are  in  our  power.  All  of  yon  are  in  our  power.  You 
said  we  made  this  State.  We  did  make  it,  madam,  and  we 
will  take  care  to  rule  what  we  made.  I  tell  yon,  madam, 
what  your  husband  will  tell  you,  too,  that  if  he  speak 
twenty  words  in  Thursday's  decision  in  such  fashion  as 
shall  injure  the  Grand  Sierra,  the  people  of  this  State 
will  send  him  tramping  where  he  came  from.  Why,  the 
people  of  this  town  will  tear  down  this  house  about  your 
heads  if  I  raise  my  hand."  Rachel  was  storming  with 
rage.  Her  anger  gave  her  that  sublime  power  that  she 
could  pretend  to  be  calm.  "  You  bribe  me  in  one  min- 


CLOUD   AND   STORM.  175 

nte,  you  threaten  me  in  the  next ;  in  both  you-  insult  me. 
Go  out  of  this  house.  I  shall  not  feel  safe  till  I  hear 
that  door  close  behind  you." 

And  the  poor  creature,  though  he  were  raging  too,  did 
as  he  was  bidden. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

CRISIS. 

"  The  hapless  husband  and  his  bride  shall  stray 
By  night  unsheltered,  and  forlorn  by  day." 

Camoens. 


WOLFF  carne  the  next  night,  as  had  been  ex- 
pected. 

The  train  was  late,  as  Rachel  had  said. 

The  crowd  of  loafers  at  the  depot  was  twenty  times 
greater  than  usual.  Ephraim  Tait  had  John  "Wolff's 
carryall  waiting,  and  the  Judge  gave  the  Chief  Justice  a 
seat.  It  was  clear  to  any  eye  that  people,  as  it  were, 
rolled  back  from  them  both,  as  if  no  one  wanted  to  seem 
particularly  intimate,  though  every  man  in  the  crowd 
would  have  shaken  hands  with  either  of  them,  or  might 
have  called  either  by  some  nickname  had  they  been  in 
favor,  or  had  he  '  '  an  axe  to  grind.  '  ' 

Cotterell,  on  the  other  hand,  the  third  judge,  was 
welcomed  by  a  sort  of  ovation.  Everybody  wanted  to 
shake  hands  with  him.  One  man  took  his  carpet-bag, 
and  another  his  umbrella.  He  was  almost  carried  to  the 
Metropolitan  coach,  and  so  many  admirers  pressed  into  it 
with  him  that  coachmen  and  porters  had  to  remonstrate. 
The  "gentlemanly  keeper  of  the  hotel"  was  at  hand 
and  addressed  the  concourse.  "  All  come  up  to  the 
house,  gentlemen.  Supper  is  waiting  for  the  Jedge  ; 
but  perhaps  when  he  is  rested  he  will  make  us  a 


CRISIS.  177 

speech.  We  shall  all  be  glad  to  hear  him.  But  don't 
crowd  the  kerridge  now — you  can  drive  on,  Ilosee." 

The  Chief  Justice  and  John  Wolff,  driven  by  Ephraim, 
retired  silently  from  this  scene  of  triumph. 

"  It  is  perhaps  your  first  experience  of  unpopularity," 
Baid  the  older  man.  "  I  have  tried  it  before  now." 

"  But  I  fancy,"  said  John  Wolff,  sternly,  "  that  you 
never  tried  it  when  your  enemy  was  organized  and  had 
twenty  or  thirty  millions  with  which  to  create  public 
opinion." 

"Not  quite,"  said  Judge  Trustum,  "but  in  the  old 
Arkansas  days  the  whole  planter  power  was  a  corporation 
without  knowing  it.  Men  hung  together  by  the  law  of 
the  instrument,  if  they  owned  slaves.  They  couldn't 
help  it.  It  was  as  drops  of  quicksilver  run  together. 
Yes,  the  pressure  then  was  quite  as  hard  as  it  is  now,"1 
he  said,  cheerfully. 

"  Let  us  hope  that  some  day  these  people's  children, 
if  not  they,  may  have  more  grit,  so  as  not  to  be  led  by 
their  noses  by  every  fool,  though  he  have  a  gold  divin- 
ing rod.  But  here  we  are.  I  suppose  you  will  hot 
come  in.  Take  the  Judge  home,  Ephraim,"  and  Rachel 
stood  at  the  open  door  to  welcome  him. 

No  word  had  she  by  which  to  worry  him.  The  supper 
was  all  ready.  The  flowers  were  on  the  table,  and  little 
Susie  had  been  kept  up  out  of  bed  to  see  her  father. 
Then  they  went  all  three  up  together  to  see  the  little 
boys  asleep.  Susie  was  put  to  bed,  and  they  said  their 
prayers  with  her.  Then  the  two  came  down  together, 
and  each  dreaded  the  five  minutes  that  were  before 
them. 

So  it  was  a  fair  relief  to  Wolff  to  find  he  had  nothing 
to  tell  his  wife,  or  that  she  had,  in  substance,  the  same 
thiup-  to  tell  him  which  he  had  to  tell  her.  The  reader 


178  THE   FORTUNKS   OF    KACHEL. 

will  have  understood  that  the  two  great  railway  interests 
of  that  part  of  the  world  had  come  into  collision.  On  this 
particular  hearing  in  equity,  which  for  years  was  to  be 
familiarly  spoken  of  as  "  Waddles  and  Cook"  or  "  Cook 
and  Waddles,"  depended  the  question  whether  the 
Interminable  Company  might  or  might  not  make  a 
certain  connection  through  a  certain  canon.  The  Grand 
Sierra  people  had  persuaded  themselves  that  if  this  con- 
nection were  made  they  would  be  ruined,  and,  by  a 
thousand  agencies  well  known  to  them  and  theirs,  they 
had  persuaded  the  press  of  the  State,  and  naturally  the 
people,  that  it  would  ruin  the  State.  It  had  even 
proved  possible  to  bring  such  influences  to  bear  upon 
Cotterell,  one  of  the  five  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
that  he  had  granted  an  injunction,  ordering  the  Inter- 
minable Koad  to  cease  its  work  in  this  "  Wild  Cherry 
Cyflon"  just  at  the  most  favorable  season  of  the  year. 
The  Interminable  people  had  two  or  three  thousand  men 
there,  and  disobeyed.  The  sheriff  had  not  failed  to 
stand  by  the  judge,  the  militia  were  ordered  to  the  place, 
and  had  gladly  rallied,  and  some  bloodshed  had  already 
taken  place.  On  an  unimportant  side  issue,  the  case  of 
Cook  and  Waddles  had  been  brought  into  equity  to  be 
heard  before  the  full  court,  but  it  was  understood  that 
all  the  rights  and  wrongs  of  the  Grand  Sierra  on  the  one 
side  and  of  the  Interminable  on  the  other  were  to  be 
decided  and  stated.  Indeed,  this  union  of  all  the  cases 
had  been  brought  about  by  Wolff,  who  had  sense  enough 
to  know  that  only  shysters  and  speculators  were  trying  to 
postpone  a  decision,  and  that  the  country  needed  peace, 
and  for  peace  prompt  declaration  of  the  Law. 

The  great  hearing  had  taken  place  at  Ashland,  because 
the  full  court  was  there.  It  was  known,  of  course,  that 
Cotterell  would  stand  by  his  own  injunction,  having 


cuisis.  170 

been,  indeed,  in  the  pay  of  the  Grand  Sierra  when  he 
made  it.  For  this,  neither  John  Wolff  nor  Judge  Trus- 
tum,  the  Chief  Justice,  cared,  except  that  the  credit  of 
their  bench  was  injured  by  it.  The  full  bench  was  five, 
and  a  unanimous  decision  by  four  judges  would  have 
just  as  much  weight  in  the  State  where  they  were  all 
known  as  if  this  poor  creature  had  joined  in  it. 

But  to  their  horror  and  indignation,  when  the  Court 
came  in  for  the  final  arguments,  Uottyngham  and  Bruce, 
the  two  other  judges,  said  that  they  had  private  interests 
depending  on  the  decision,  and  must  not  sit  !  The  deci- 
sion was  thus  left  by  these  weak-backed  brethren  to  the 
Chief  Justice  and  Wolff  alone.  Both  Cottyngham  and 
Bruce  had  been  "  approached  "  in  the  vacation,  and  had 
been  persuaded  each  to  buy  a  share  of  the  original  stock 
of  the  Grand  Sierra,  at  four  dollars  and  twenty-five 
cents.  What  inducements  they  had  for  this  investment, 
in  itself  unprofitable,  no  man  knew,  or  told  if  he  did  know. 

"When  Judge  Bruce  made  this  announcement  of  pri- 
vate interest,  and  gathered  up  his  papers  with  some 
swell  and  fuss  to  withdraw,  even  the  packed  court- room 
at  Ashland  hissed  him.  The  old  Chief  Justice,  who 
had  looked  into  the  bores  of  rebel  rifles  without  flinch- 
ing, looked  over  his  spectacles  at  him  calmly,  and  then 
turned  to  John  Wolff,  who  was  left  alone  on  his  right  : 

"  Brother  Wolff,  be  good  enough  not  to  blow  out  your 
brains  till  we  have  finished  this  inquiry." 

So  the  three  remaining  judges,  Tnistum,  Wolff,  and 
Cotterell,  had  gone  through  the  long  arguments.  They 
had  taken  time  to  draw  up  the  opinion,  and  this  was  the 
opinion  for  which  Mr.  Hudson,  Mr.  Tremlett,  Mr.  Tal- 
fourd,  and  Mr.  James,  with  every  living  man,  woman, 
and  child  in  the  town,  were  now  waiting  with  such  eager 
anxiety. 


180  THE   FORTUNES   OE    RACHEL. 

When  the  court  met  the  building  was  crowded,  and 
around  it  thousands  upon  thousands  of  miners,  railroad 
workmen,  and  other  people  from  twenty  miles  around 
filled  up  streets  and  squares. 

After  a  tedious  string  of  routine,  which  was  hurried 
l>y  as  well  as  in  decency  it  could  be,  the  Cook  and  Wad- 
dles business  came  on,  and  the  Chief  Justice  said  that 
the  decision  of  the  court  would  be  given  on  all  matters 
together.  He  regretted  that  the  court  lost  the  counsel 
of  two  of  its  members  ;  this  the  old  man  said  with  sub- 
lime scorn.  He  regretted  also  that  the  opinion  of  those 
members  of  the  court  who  were  able  to  sit  was  not  unani- 
mous. But  it  was  the  decision,  and  in  an  interlocutory 
way,  as  if  to  the  general  audience,  the  old  man  added 
that  he  supposed  he  need  not  say  it  was  final.  The 
opinion  had  been  prepared,  he  said,  by  his  associate,  Mr. 
Justice, Wolff,  who  would  read  it.  "But,"  said  the 
old  man  with  energy,  "  every  word  in  it  has  the  abso- 
lute approval  of  the  majority  of  the  court." 

So  John  Wolff  read  this  critical  opinion.  Talfourd 
and  James,  the  lights  of  the  New  York  bar,  listened  in- 
tently, and  with  a  secret  delight  which  they  were  both 
too  well  trained  to  display,  to  its  simple  and  direct  state- 
ment of  principle,  of  constitutional  right,  and  of  State 
law.  Step  by  step  it  passed  along,  through  the  difficult 
mountains  and  the  provoking  molehills  of  the  contro- 
versy. And  at  the  close,  with  a  lucid  statement  which 
left  the  Grand  Sierra  without  one  inch  of  ground,  Wolff 
read  the  decree.  In  "  Cook  and  Waddles"  the  attorney 
for  the  Grand  Sierra  were  allowed  a  certain  bill  of  costs, 
about  which  they  were  anxious,  and  for  which  they  had 
contended.  In  that  critical  matter  of  the  permanency  of 
the  injunction  which  restrained  work  in  the  Cherry 
Canon,  for  which  permanency  the  Grand  Sierra  had 


CRISIS.  181 

been  contending,  the  court  dissolved  that  injunction. 
"  If  the  trustees  so  wish,  that  M*ork  may  go  on  to-rnorrow 
or  to-day." 

Mr.  Talfourd  and  Mr.  James,  the  magnificent  New 
York  lawyers  who  were  retained  as  additional  counsel 
for  the  Grand  Sierra,  looked  at  each  other,  and  each 
made  a  little  inclination  of  the  head,  but  they  did  not 
even  smile.  The  old  Chief  Justice,  with  a  certain  irreg- 
ularity which  the  crowd  in  the  court-room  justified,  said 
to  the  people  rather  than  to  the  bar,  "  In  view  of  the 
popular  interest  in  this  case,  I  think  it  well  to  say  that 
the  people  of  that  neighborhood  should  understand  that 
this  decree  is  final,  and  that,  as  before  now,  the  whole 
strength  of  the  State  must  be  devoted  to  maintain  law 
and  order." 

Judge  Cotterell  in  the  briefest  form  expressed  his  dis- 
sent, and  then  the  court  adjourned.  It  would  have  been 
hard  indeed  to  do  anything  else.  For,  from  the  moment 
John  Wolff  sat  down,  a  storm  of  hissing  and  hooting  had 
made  all  that  was  said  in  order  inaudible. 

And  thus  was  the  spark  put  to  the  waiting  magazine. 
The  sheriff,  who  was  a  hardy  old  soldier  and  cared  for 
hisses  as  little  as  he  cared  for  grasshoppers,  meant  to 
keep  order  in  his  court.  Before  they  knew  it  two  of  the 
men  known  as  ringleaders  in  these  clamors  found  hand- 
cuffs on  their  hands,  and  were  marched  into  the  cells 
down-stairs.  In  general  the  people  in  the  room  did  not 
find  this  out  till  the  sheriff  had  succeeded.  But  in  this 
little  triumph  he  had  sent  his  four  best  men  out  of  the 
way  for  a  moment,  and  the  howling  and  yelling  were 
now  fairly  irrepressible.  The  judges  retired,  however, 
unmolested.  It  is  but  fair  to  say  that  nobody  thought  of 
delaying  them.  Cotterell  went  out  with  none  of  the 
ovation  of  the  night  before.  People  had  forgotten  him 


182  THE   FORTUNES   OF   HACHEL. 

in  that  eager  rage  which  asked  what  should  be  done 
next.  And  to  various  liquor  saloons  and  other  points  of 
popular  discussion  they  retired  to  consider  this  question. 

Unfortunately  the  Frontier  Blackguard  was  an  even- 
ing journal.  The  temptation  to  sell  a  large  edition  to 
the  people  who  had  come  into  town  was  irresistible. 
The  special  grievance  which  the  Blackguard  harped 
upon,  was  the  indignity  offered  to  THE  PEOPLE  by 
the  arrest  of  those  two  distinguished  fellow-citizens, 
Dennis  Malgruddy,  Esq.,  and  Hod  Fitts,  Esq.,  who  by 
the  minions  of  authority  had  been  fettered  and  thrown 
into  a  dungeon  for  the  mere  crime  of  expressing  the  un- 
bought  sentiments  of  American  citizens.  The  editor 
defied  the  Minions  of  authority  to  fetter  him.  He  would 
be  found  in  his  office.  But  he  ventured  to  inform  the 
Minions  that  a  six-shooter  lay  on  the  table  beside  him. 

Now  people  really  cared  very  little  about  the  utter- 
ances of  the  Blackguard,  and  cared  nothing  for  its  editor. 
But,  by  misfortune,  some  one  not  quite  drunk  read  this 
aloud  that  evening  to  a  hundred  men  who  were  quite 
drunk  in  Gus.  Mitchell's  "Free  and  Easy."  A  pro- 
posal was  made  at  once  that  the  company  should  march 
to  the  Court  House  and  take  Hod  and  Dennis  out.  It 
was  received  with  applause,  and  to  the  Court  House  the 
festive  company  adjourned.  Of  course  the  crowd  gath- 
ered as  they  marched,  and  in  ten  minutes  two  thousand 
men  were  besieging  the  building,  and  a  dozen  self-con- 
stituted leaders  were  banging  at  the  principal  door.  To 
their  disgust  they  found  that  Hod  and  Dennis  had  been 
liberated  an  hour  before.  The  sheriff  had  had  the  wit 
to  bring  them  before  a  magistrate  for  contempt  in  a 
quiet  afternoon  session.  The  magistrate  had  given  them 
the  alternative  of  fifty  dollars'  fine  or  of  two  months  im- 
prisonment. Hod,  who  was  a  man  of  means,  had  paid 


CRISIS.  183 

the  fine  for  both.  But  on  a  hint  from  one  of  the 
sheriff's  officers  that  they  might  be  "  wanted  "  on  a 
much  graver  offence  the  next  day,  they  had  sped  to  the 
evening  express,  and  were  now  well  out  of  his  jurisdic- 
tion. The  army  of  liberation  found  their  work  done  to 
their  hand. 

"  Let's  serenade  old  Trustum,  hang  him  !  Let's  teach 
Jack  "Wolff  a  little  Rocky  Mountain  law  !"  This  was 
the  cry  of  one  of  the  disappointed  leaders.  And  the 
hundred  or  two  who  heard  cheered,  and  the  whole 
uncertain  mass  of  men  who  did  not  hear  surged  slowly 
down  through  Lewis  Avenue  to  the  unconscious  homes 
of  the  unpopular  judges. 

John  "Wolff  was  lying  on  the  sofa.  Rachel  was  play- 
ing to  him  a  song  without  words.  The  front  door 
opened,  and  Ephraim  Tait  dashed  in. 

"  Take  the  Doctor  and  the  baby  and  Suse.  Don't 
stop  for  nothin'.  Cut  through  the  garden  to  the  little 
orchard,  drop  'em  over  the  wall,  and  then  pack  'em  to 
my  house.  Jedge,  you  go  fust,  it's  you  they's  after. 
I'll  pack  the  babies  with  Miss  Wolff." 

Nor  did  Ephraim  tolerate  any  delay  for  counsel. 
When  babies  and  Jedge  and  "  Miss  Wolff  "  were  safely 
in  the  orchard  he  returned  to  the  house.  He  put  out 
the  gas  in  the  sitting-room,  lighted  it  in  the  study,  put 
on  Judge  Wolff's  dressing-jacket  and  cap  which  he 
found  there,  and  opened  a  volume  of  Reports  to  read. 

In  two  minutes  after,  a  peal  at  the  door-bell  sounded. 
In  a  moment  more  a  brickbat  through  the  office  window 
struck  the  pipe  of  the  chandelier.  The  metal  gave  way, 
and  a  stream  of  fire  poured  down  from  the  ceiling  on  the 
table  below.  A  storm  of  brickbats  and  other  missiles 
followed.  Ephraim  took  refuge  in  the  dark  sitting- 
room,  and  did  not  venture  out  to  extinguish  the  papers 


184  THE    FORTUXES    OF    RACHEL. 

which  were  blazing  on  the  table.  One  crash,  as  a  heavy 
blow  broke  the  window  sash,  was  followed  by  an  inroad 
from  the  piazza  of  a  dozen  men. 

"  Here  is  the  sneakin'  cuss.  Off  with  him.  Who's 
got  handcuffs  now  ?"  And  a  bit  of  cord  brought  for  tho 
purpose  was  thrown  round  Ephraim's  neck  rather  as  a 
type  of  subjection,  and  he  was  hustled  by  a  dozen  men 
into  the  dark  hall  and  street.  Strange  to  say,  in  an 
agony  of  apparent  terror,  he  pressed  his  handkerchief  to 
his  face,  and  seemed  almost  willing  to  leave  the  blaze 
behind  him. 

An  express  wagon  was  at  the  door.  "  In  with  him  !  in 
with  him  !  Take  him  to  Gus  Mitchell's.  We'll  try 
him.  We'll  teach  him  the  law  of  the  Rockies  !  Hump 
yourself,  'squire  !"  This  was  the  cry  of  the  leader  of 
the  whole  foray. 

And  the  captive  silently  mounted  the  cart,  still  sob- 
bing in  his  handkerchief.  Hatless,  and  with  no  sign  of 
resolution,  he  permitted  himself  to  be  held  by  the  two 
brutes  who  took  the  seat  with  him. 

It  was  not  till  the  wagon  arrived  at  Mitchell's,  well  in 
advance  of  its  escort,  that  Ephraim  threw  all  disguise 
away. 

"  I'll  teach  yer  Rocky  Mountain  law  !"  he  cried,  as  he 
gave  one  of  the  two  a  blow  which  pitched  him  from 
the  wagon.  "I'll  interpret  the  statutes  for  yer,  Jem 
Blowers  !"  he  said  to  the  other,  as  he  twisted  his  neck 
cloth  by  a  rapid  hold  behind  his  neck,  and  wrenched  the 
poor  wretch  from  his  place.  "  Ef  yer  want  to  fight, 
any  of  you,  yer  know  were  there's  fightin'  to  be  done." 
But  the  horses,  frightened,  were  backing  the  wfcgon 
wildly,  and  when  Ephraim  jumped  off  he  disappeared 
in  the  darkness. 

Ephraim  Tait  was  a  bachelor.     Or  if  there  were  any 


CRISIS.  185 

Mrs.  Taits  in  one  or  another  region  in  which  lie  had 
travelled,  they  were  never  alluded  to  by  him  or  his  inti- 
mate friends.  But  Rachel  and  her  husband  and  the  chil- 
dren found  the  latch-string  out,  and  when  at  last  they 
dared  strike  a  light,  a  house  of  two  rooms,  thoroughly 
neat  and  comfortable.  In  these  rooms  the  three  chil- 
dren were  completely  at  home.  They  had  often  spent 
long  afternoons  there  with  Ephraim,  in  admiration,  too 
strong  for  words,  of  the  devices  of  his  housekeeping. 

Meanwhile  the  sheriff  had  not  been  asleep.  He  had 
not  troubled  himself  much  by  reliance  on  the  police  of 
the  infant  city,  so  called.  He  had  sent  to  the  Military 
Academy,  and  at  the  moment  when  the  mob  left 
Mitchell's  he  had  spoken  through  the  telephone  to  the 
professor.  The  young  men  liked  no  better  errand. 
They  had  two  miles  at  double-quick  in  which  to  blow 
off  their  steam.  They  met  a  deputy  sheriff  just  before 
they  came  to  the  city  pavement.  And  so  it  happened, 
that  in  less  thaif  sixty  seconds  from  the  moment  when 
the  express  wagon  left  Judge  Wolff's  house,  the  flinging 
of  brickbats  ceased  suddenly  as  a  blaze  of  bayonets  ap- 
peared when  the  column  wheeled  into  the  avenue.  The 
sheriff  on  horseback  rode  in  advance  and  cried,  "  Clear 
this  street,  and  clear  it  quick  !'  with  one  or  two  unneces- 
sary adjurations. 

The  street  was  deserted  in  an  instant  by  all  but  the 
improvised  soldiers.  They  had  their  hands  full  in  extin- 
guishing the  fire. 

The  riot  was  over.  The  sheriff  arrested  ten  of  the 
most  guilty  men  in  their  drunken  sleep  at  six  the  next 
morning.  The  Evening  Blackguard  published  a  flam- 
ing leader,  pointing  the  finger  of  scorn  on  all  who  had 
instigated  it,  or  seduced  these  misguided  men.  Order 
reigned  in  Warsaw. 


186  THE   FORTUNES   OF   RACHEL. 

But  when  poor  Rachel  and  her  children  went  back  to 
their  pretty  home,  there  were  not  five  panes  of  glass  un- 
broken. The  keyboard  of  the  piano  had  been  crushed 
by  a  paving  stone  hurled  by  some  Ajax.  Every  one  of 
John  Wolff's  historical  picture  frames  was  demolished. 
Indeed,  it  was  almost  by  miracle  that  the  fire  had  been 
put  out,  after  it  gained  the  way  it  had  made  in  the  office. 

Rachel  took  her  poor  homeless  birds  to  the  Governor's 
open  house.  And  she  never  lived  in  that  wrecked 
home  again. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

BACK   AGAIX. 

"  Through  Eden  took  their  solitary  way." 

Paradise  Lost.    . 

No  !  It  was  certain  that  in  such  an  aspect  of  affairs 
no  party  would  nominate  John  Wolff  for  judge  at  the 
next  election.  If  he  opened  his  office  at  his  house,  it 
was  simply  to  expose  his  family  to  insult  and  perhaps  to 
danger — to  run  all  the  gauntlet  of  boycotting,  and  for 
nothing.  John  declined  a  flattering  proposal  from  Mr. 
Talfourd  that  he  should  remove  to  New  Tork,  and  so 
soon  as  he  could  free  his  old  home  at  the  Shaft  from  his 
tenants  lie  took  his  wife  and  children  there  to  begin  life 
again. 

And  Rachel's  kitchen  was  established  in  the  log-cabin 
which  to  the  original  Iluddleston,  weary  of  camp  life, 
seemed  a  palace.  She  would  not  let  her  husband  depre- 
ciate her  surroundings.  "  How  much  better  off  we  are 
than  we  were,  even  with  your  ulster  for  both  in  the  fog  ! 
How  much  better  off  1  am  than  when  Miss  Goddard  was 
abusing  me  because  ray  accounts  did  not  please  her  ! 
How  could  I  be  unhappy  when  the  children  are  so 
well  ?" 

As  for  the  children,  it  need  not  be  said  that  they 
greatly  preferred  the  delights  of  the  Shaft  to  the  luxuries 
of  the  metropolis.  There  had  been  talk  of  a  school  in 
town.  Little  danger  was  there  now  of  such  imprison- 


188X  THE   FORTUNES    OF    RACHEL. 

ment  in  Huddleston.  Epliraim  Tait  bad  conducted  the 
removal  of  the  household  goods.  He  was  so  well  pleased 
with  the  outlook  at  the  Shaft  that  he  removed  his  house- 
hold goods  there  also.  And  the  "  doctor"  and  Susie  had 
his  invaluable  assistance  in  their  education  in  arts  of  the 
trapper  and  the  angler.  Indeed  the  "  doctor"  was  heard 
to  confide  to  Susie  that  Ephraim  was  teaching  him  how 
to  "  prospect,"  and  that  he  knew  he  should  create  a  shaft 
of  his  own  some  day,  and  that  his  father  would  be  rich 
again,  and  Huddleston's  a  great  city.  From  that  time, 
when  the  children  took  their  lunch  with  them  into  the 
thicket,  it  was  with  private  expectations  that  before 
night  the  great  discovery  would  be  made,  and  before 
morning  mamma  would  have  her  new  piano. 

And  Rachel  ?  She  declared  that  life  passed  more 
smoothly  than  it  had  for  any  time  in  five  years.  In  the 
first  place,  her  husband  was  at  home  most  of  the  time. 
When  the  court  met  at  Blood's  he  was  there,  and  some- 
times in  another  county.  But  he  was  not  away  now 
three  quarters  of  his  life.  As  for  her  own  time,  she  was 
responsible  for  breakfast,  dinner,  and  supper,  with  the 
help  of  her  little  Susie.  But  when  these  three  things 
were  done  and  the  kitchen  and  pantry  were  in  order, 
Rachel  had  more  time  to  herself  than  she  had  had  with 
her  round  of  social  cares  and  duties,  as  the  president  of 
countless  charities  and  va  general  leader  of  society. 
"Washing  day  of  course  was  a  nuisance.  That  was  fore- 
ordained when  Eve  left  Paradise  with  Adam.  And 
although  Adam  still  loved  Eve,  even  he  could  not  wholly 
relieve  her  in  that  business  of  cleaning  the  skins  when 
they  were  dirty.  But  John  could  and  did  provide  the 
best  machinery  there  was.  He  would  send  over  from 
Blood's  the  last  sweet  thing  in  wringers,  and  would 
expect  her  to  destroy  linen  and  buttons  with  alkalies. 


BACK   AGAIN.  ISi) 

Ephraim  Tait  brought  her  in  a  conduit,  from  the  edge 
of  an  infant  glacier,  the  purest  and  "  softest"  of  water. 
And  Rachel  herself  glorified  the  laundry  business  with 
all  the  glamour  which  Nausicaa  threw  abont  it. 

She  took  a  good  deal  of  comfort  from  Madame  Levi 
and  Sal  Kootz  and  others  of  the  women  of  the  Shaft, 
who  had  held  by  its  fortunes  when  more  prosperous  per- 
sons had  abandoned  it.  The  range  of  life  which  these 
women  had  lived  in  when  with  young  husbands,  who 
had  the  miner's  gadfly,  which  drove  them  from  home  to 
home,  was  marvellous.  And  after  such  first  husbands 
died,  by  one  violent  death  or  another,  the  number  of 
after  husbands  who  had  claimed  them  in  turn,  in  the 
paucity  of  women  in  the  earlier  camps,  would  have  stag- 
gered even  Miss  Braddon  or  the  Chief  of  the  Sadducees. 
As  life  declined  and  husbands  ceased,  these  women  took 
up  a  motherly  care,  perhaps  of  a  camp  of  twenty  of  the 
"  boys,"  as  they  loved  to  call  these  grizzled  men.  Their 
power  in  the  community  within  certain  points  was  very 
large,  and  Rachel  found  that  there  were  few  subjects  at 
all  within  their  range,  where  she  could  not  learn  much 
from  their  rare  and  racy  experience.  For  the  law  of 
selection  had  applied.  If  they  had  not  been  very  re- 
markable women  they  could  not  have  lived  through  all 
that  they  had  endured. 

But  the  Shaft  had  woefully  declined  in  all  the  signs 
and  realities  of  prosperity,  since  those  golden  days  when 
we  saw  it  before,  when  it  even  dictated  the  names  of 
candidates  to  State  conventions.  The  particular  Car- 
bonate which  Huddleston  had  struck,  which  had  built 
up  a  lively  little  town  about  his  shaft,  had  given  out 
somewhat  inexplicably.  Even  skilful  miners  could  not 
understand  what  account  to  give  of  so  sudden  a  failure. 
Other  shafts,  which  had  been  started  as  near  as  mining 


190  THE   FORTUNES   OF   KACHEL. 

law  permits  to  Huddleston's,  Lad  never  been  as  success- 
ful as  their  owners  had  pretended.  Companies  had  been 
organized  in  Chicago  and  at  the  East,  on  the  strength  of 
favorable  reports  on  these  shafts  and  the  well-known 
wealth  which  came  out  from  Huddleston's.  And  these 
companies  had  spent  a  great  deal  of  money  in  "  develop- 
ing their  property."  They  had  developed  it  in  that 
original  sense  that  they  had  opened  it  out  to  the  influ- 
ences of  the  sun,  rain,  and  air,  but  in  that  developed 
condition  the  property  remained.  The  stockholders 
received  no  returns ;  they  even  became  tired  of  paying 
dividends.  They  recalled  their  engineers  and  workmen, 
and  so  the  population  of  Huddleston's  declined.  "  A  few 
of  us  stick  by,"  said  John  Wolff,  as  he  was  talking  with 
some  friends  at  Blood's.  "  Some,  as  I  do,  because  we  have 
some  interests  there,  •which  some  one  must  take  care  of, 
and  we  have  nothing  to  pay  an  agent  for  letting  them 
alone.  Some  stay  because  they  have  no  money  to  move 
away  with.  And  two  or  three  enthusiasts  stay  because 
they  have  boundless  faith  in  the  future  of  the  Shaft. 
They  have  told  the  Eastern  world  so  long  that  here  was 
the  great  centre  of  the  mining  interest  of  mankind  that 
they  believe  it  themselves,  and  forget  that  this  may  bo 
like  the  centre  of  the  solar"  system,  where  some  people 
say  there  is  nothing.  Then,  as  in  all  mining  camps,  we 
have  one  or  two  hermits.  That  Englishman  whom  the 
boys  call  the  Duke  lives  six  or  eight  miles  above  us.  He 
walks  over  sometimes  for  candles  and  hard- tack  '  and 
powder  and  salt,  and  he  is  apt  to  look  in  and  make  my 
M'ifo  play  Schumann  to  him.  And  I'll  tell  you  who  we 
have,  Frank — your  classmate  Trecothick  lives  three  or 
lour  miles  over  the  divide.  My  boys  stumbled  in  on  his 
cabin  one  day,  and  he  treated  them  to  chocolate.  He 
told  me  he  was  translating  the  fragments  of  Musseus  ; 


BACK   AGAW.  1'Ji 

that  they  had  never  been  properly  edited.  And  I  told 
him  that  I  thought  that  was  very  probable." 

"  Queer  fellow,"  replied  Frank  Edes;  "  he  always  was. 
I  hope  the  wildcats  like  his  translations.  I  must  come 
over  and  see  him.  He  may  like  to  help  me  about  my 
Ilesiod."  And  they  all  laughed  at  the  outspurt  of  the 
classics  beneath  the  shades  of  this  strange  Olympus. 

Yes  !  there  was  society  of  a  kind — wild  and  tame, 
grand  and  simple — if  one  were  willing  to  take  it  or  knew 
where  to  look  for  it.  But  even  with  all  these  seductions, 
life  at  Huddleston's  Shaft  was  more  simple  than  life  at 
the  capital.  It  reminded  Rachel  of  the  old  Hitchin 
days.  And  sometimes  she  and  John  had  a  tramp 
through  brooks,  and  over  rocks  and  stumps  which  seemed 
like  very  happy  days  in  Waterville — days  no  happier 
than  these.  Days  like  Waterville,  one  says,  only,  where 
then  were  these  stout  boys  and  this  little  girl  who  rim 
before  so  adventurously,  or  who  follow  behind  laden  so 
heavily  with  woodland  treasures  ? 

And  in  the  second  summer  of  their  stay  here,  Rachel's 
second  little  girl  came  to  her.  And  in  all  that  season  of 
care  and  anxious  waiting  and  grateful  rest,  the  quaint, 
queer  old  women  of  the  camp  hovered  round  her,  with  a 
set  of  tender  forest  courtesies  which  made  her  think  of 
the  good  fairies  in  the  German  Fairy  tales.  And  when 
the  little  darling  opened  her  eyes  upon  the  light,  she  was 
surrounded  with  ministrations  such  as  no  science  of  Pari* 
or  Vienna  could  command  or  could  improve  upon.  "  I 
declare  to  you,"  said  Rachel,  in  writing  afterward  to 
Cecilia,  "  if  my  courage  had  been  equal  to  my  gratitude 
I  should  have  called  the  baby  Sal,  or  Scindy,  or  Bets,  or 
Poll,  in  utter  thankfulness  to  these  dear  old  crones,  who 
are,  indeed,  more  than  godmothers  to  her.  And  if  they 
will  endue  her  with  their  unselfish,  wise,  queer,  jolly, 


192  THE   F011TUNES    OF    11ACHEL. 

happy,  kindly,  nature-loving  ways,  why,  I  shall  always 
thank  God  that  my  darling  is  born  to  me  in  what  people 
call  a  wilderness." 

And  the  little  Susan  had  become  a  girl  of  nine  years 
old.  She  had  asked  her  father  for  a  hatchet  because  she 
wanted  to  build  herself  a  wigwam,  and,  to  Rachel's 
horror,  he  had  given  it  to  her.  She  considered  herself 
quite  competent  to  attend  to  the  baby  while  her  mother 
was  ironing  or  when  she  went  across  the  creek  to  take 
care  of  Old  Bets,  when  Old  Bets  had  that  bad  fall  in  the 
run.  And  she  was. 

One  morning  Rachel  fitted  out  all  the  three  elders  for 
a  day's  expedition.  The  boys  carried  the  provant,  Susie 
had  the  towels  and  other  "  outfit "  for  bathing,  and,  by 
agreement,  they  met  Ephraim  punctually  at  the  mill. 
Then  by  a  trail  well  known  to  him,  he  led  them  two  or 
three  miles  to  what  the  children  called  his  "  secret."  It 
proved  to  be  a  place  where  by  chopping  down  a  dozen 
trees  he  had  repaired  an  old  beaver's  dam  so  that  he  had 
set  back  the  water  over  a  piece  of  pretty  greensward. 

"  Jest  the  place  for  you  to  larn  to  swim  in,"  said  the 
delighted  old  man,  "and  now  I'm  the  man  wot's  goin' 
to  larn  ye." 

The  joy  of  old  days  in  Marblehead  Harbor  sparkled  in 
his  eyes.  And  to  Susie  all  the  memories  of  the  old 
Baikal  days,  of  which  she  had  made  her  mother  tell  her, 
came  up,  and  the  bliss  of  heaven  was  before  her.  It  was 
for  this  that  mamma  had  packed  up  the  bathing  things  ! 

Many  other  joys  illuminated  that  day.  Twenty  times 
did  the  erring  arrow  from  Will's  bow  miss  twenty  rab- 
bits, so  called  for  want  of  a  better  name.  But  twice, 
what  the  poets  would  call  his  unerring  shaft,  spitted  the 
little  beasts,  and  so  he  had  a  triumphant  trophy  of  victory 
to  carry  home.  After  a  day  of  the  wildest  life,  such  as 


BACK    AGAIN.  193 

made  Susie  feel  herself  in  every  regard  the  equal  of 
Mirandy,  the  Ute  girl  whom  she  dimly  remembered  in 
her  mother's  kitchen,  they  were  unwillingly  girding  up 
their  loins  to  return  home,  when  a  cry  from  above, 
almost  of  distress,  startled  them. 

"You  stay  ware  yer  be,"  said  Ephraim.  .  "  Don't 
move,  one  on  yer,  tell  I  come  back.  Won't  be  gone 
long." 

Kor  was  he.  He  found  in  the  wooded  intervale  above, 
a  messenger  from  Tucker's  Cross  Roads  who  had  lost 
his  way.  Misled  by  an  old  corduroy  road  long  since 
disused,  which  had  been  laid  in  the  palmy  days  of  the 
Atlas  Company's  lavishness,  the  poor  fellow — "  Nothin' 
but  a  tender-foot  !"  said  Ephraim,  as  he  apologized  for 
him — had  crossed  into  the  thickest  growth  of  the  new 
wood.  This  always  grows  closest  where  the  sunlight  has 
once  been  let  in.  The  tender-foot  was  pushing  his  horse 
as  well  as  he  knew  how,  when  the  poor  creature's  leg 
slipped  through  a  hole  between  two  logs,  and  he  fell,  in 
agony.  That  was  clear  enough.  Whether  the  leg  were 
broken  remained  to  be  seen. 

"  Stay  jest  ware  ye  be,"  said  Ephraim,  when  he  had 
diagnosed  the  position.  "  Stay  ware  ye  be.  Sit  on  his 
head,  jes'  so.  Don't  ye  move  tell  1  come  back."  And 
the  tender-foot  obeyed. 

Ephraim  went  for  his  charges,  thinking  the  delay 
would  frighten  them.  Then,  with  the  crow  which  he 
ha4  at  the  dam  for  his  log-rolling,  and  his  inseparable 
axe,  he  appeared  at  the  scene  of  disaster.  Few  angels 
from  heaven  without  such  tools  would  have  seemed  to 
the  tender-foot  to  be  visitors  as  acceptable.  Some  skil- 
ful chopping,  a  good  deal  of  prying,  with  even  little  Bill 
rolling  in  stones  and  bits  of  wood  under  the  logs  as  they 
rose,  ended  in  the  happy  starting  up  of  the  imprisoned 


194  THE   FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

beast.  His  leg  was  bleeding,  but  the  bone  was  not 
broken.  Susie  ran  and  brought  her  towels,  and  the  gash 
was  skilfully  sewed  and  bandaged. 

"Now,  wot  blamed  nonsense  sent  ye  here?"  said 
Ephraim,  after  the  tender-foot  was  open  to  inquiry. 
"  Don't  ye  know  that  the  Atlas  is  all  blown  higher  nor  a 
kite  these  six  years  ?' ' 

"  I  don't  know  nothin'  about  the  Atlas,''  said  the 
boy,  tired  and  discouraged.  "  They  sent  me  with  a 
message  to  the  Shaft,  'n  they  said  1  should  find  the 
way." 

"  'N  ye  didn't, "  said  Ephraim,  sententiously.  "  Lucky 
for  you  we  wus  here.  Now  you  come  along  on  foot,  ef 
your  feet  ain't  tender  ;  ef  they  be,  stay  here  till  to-mor- 
row mornin',"  he  added,  in  a  grim  jest  by  the  way  of  re- 
buking the  boy  that  he  had  lived  for  so  few  months  in  the 
mountains. 

But  with  all  Ephraim' s  assumed  superiority,  his  native 
honor  held  him  back  from  asking  why  a  message  to  the 
Shaft  were  so  important,  or  to  whom  the  boy  came. 
The  old  days  of  a  Star  Route  mail  to  the  Shaft  had  long 
gone  by.  It  depended  now  for  its  news  on  a  weekly 
mail  from  Tucker's. 

It  was  not  till  they  came  within  sight  of  the  light 
which  Rachel  had  set  in  the  window  for  them — a  little 
anxious,  to  tell  the  truth,  now  that  the  sun  had  gone 
down  so  long — that  Ephraim  said,  not  austerely  : 

"  Ware  be  ye  goin'  ?  Do  you  know  the  Shaft,  now 
you've  come  ?" 

No,  the  poor  tender-foot  did  not  know.  It  was  a  tel- 
egraphic despatch  he  had. 

"  For  the  Jedge,  most  likely,"  said  Ephraim.  "  Only 
generally  he  leaves  'em  word  ware  he  is.  Mebbe  he 
forgot.  You  come  in,  and  we'll  see." 


BACK   AGAIN.  195 

And  Rachel  at  the  door  welcomed  the  victors.  Duly 
she  admired  the  "rabbits,"  and  promised  that  papa 
should  have  them  in  a  pie  when  he  appeared.  And  ehe 
would  not  tell  him  who  killed  them  till  the  right  moment 
came.  And  Ephraim  praised  the  children  volubly. 

"'Never  woz  children  thet  woz  so  little  tendsome," 
said  he,  with  pride.  And  he  was  sure  Susie  would  soon 
swim  as  well  as  her  mother.  » 

Then  all  parties  turned  to  the  tender-foot. 

He  produced  his  despatch — one  of  those  well  known 
yellow  envelopes  of  which  in  old  days  of  the  circuit 
Rachel  had  opened  so  many. 

Edmund  Randolph  to  John    Wolff. 

*  *  ATTORNEY-  GENERAL'  s  OFFICE, 

"WASHINGTON,  August  29,  1895. 
"  We  are  very  desirous  to  retain  your  services  as  assist- 
ant counsel  with  Messrs.  Talfourd  and  Dexter  to  see  to 
the  rights  of  the  government  in  the  closed  mail  and 
transportation  cases.  The  other  counsel  meet  me  on  the 
sixth  proximo  here.  Can  you  be  here  then  ?  Answer. 
Draw  on  me,  if  you  wish,  by  telegraph  for  any  expenses 
or  retainer  in  advance. 

"EDMUND  RANDOLPH,  D.  II." 

The  reader  will  observe  that  this  was  in  the  second 
administration  of  John  Fisher. 


CHAPTER  XX. 
BACHEL'S    ANSWER. 

"  Resolve  my  doubt." 

Henry  VI. 

To  this  despatch,  written  bj  a  pencil  almost  vermilion, 
as  she  saw,  Rachel  had  to  answer.  Not  at  the  moment. 
For  nothing  was  more  clear  than  that  the  tender-foot 
could  not  go  back  to  Tucker's  in  the  darkness.  But 
with  the  first  gray  of  morning  he  must  be  started  on  his 
way.  She  gave  him  his  supper  and  put  him  to  bed. 
Epiraim  promised  to  provide  another  horse  for  him 
should  his  own  prove  incapable,  as  seemed  probable. 

"  Ef  his  own  feet  wasn't  tender,"  said  Ephraim, 
with  a  grim  smile  to  little  Bill,  "  he  could  go  on  them. 
But  they  be." 

Then  Rachel  heard  once  more,  with  full  sympathy 
and  praise,  the  experiences  of  the  day.  The  wonderful 
successes  in  the  chase,  the  two  baths,  how  Susie  kept  up 
for  three  strokes,  and  how  brave  Bill  was  in  the  water, 
were  all  repeated  in  detail.  She  put  her  little  birds  to 
bed  and  came  down  to  her  despatch. 

How  long  her  husband's  present  absence  would  be  she 
hardly  knew.  Her  communications  with  Ethelred,  the 
county  town  where  he  was  trying  a  difficult  mining  case, 
were  much  more  intricate  than  those  with  Edwards's  or 
Tucker's.  "  Do  not  be  frightened,"  he  had  said,  "  till 
you  hear  me  say  I  am  dead."  She  could  not  get  a  letter 


RACHEL'S  ANSWER.  197 

to  him  at  Ethelred  for  two  days.  Again,  she  did  not 
know  if  he  could  be  at  Washington  at  the  time  named. 
And,  thirdly,  she  did  not  know  if  he  would  want  to  go. 

Yet  she  must  answer  the  vermilion  edict. 

She  sat,  without  writing,  turning  over  the  ifs  and  buts 
in  her  mind  as  she  darned  an  enormous  hole  in  "Will's 
stocking.  She  knew  she  could  justify  herself  to  her 
husband  for  an  answer  accepting  the  proposal.  A  hun- 
dred times  she  had  heard  him  say  that,  in  a  lazy  world, 
action  is  generally  more  needed  than  rest,  that  Belial, 
the  devil  of  laziness,  always  suggests  that  nothing 
should  be  done,  and  that  angels  of  light  therefore  pre- 
fer to  do  a  thing  than  not  to  do  it,  other  things  being 
equal. 

All  this  was  favorite  gospel  with  John  Wolff. 

But  against  this  the  suggestion  was  obvious  that, 
whether  this  were  a  lazy  world  or  not,  John  Wolff  was 
not  lazy.  He  was  hard  at  work.  He  was  hard  at  work 
now.  Would  he  thank  Rachel  for  mixing  him  up  again 
on  the  same  side  with  those  Talfourd  people  ?  He  had 
certainly  declined  to  have  anything  to  do  with  Mr.  Tal- 
fourd before. 

And  Rachel  took  another  stocking,  with  a  hole  still 
larger  in  the  heel. 

As  she  adjusted  in  it  a  smooth  quartz  pebble  which 
Bill  had  brought  her  from  the  Canon,  a  voice  clear  and 
distinct  from  Aunt  Lois's  wisdom,  in  the  dear  old 
Ilitchin  days,  spoke  out  again  in  her  memory  : 

"  If  you  are  in  doubt,  take  the  trick."  So  half  an 
hour  before  what  Ephraim  called  "  sun-up"  the  mes- 
senger was  started  with  liis  answer. 

"  And  so,"  said  Rachel  to  her  husband,  when  he  came 
home  unexpectedly  the  evening  after,  "1  wrote  the 
despatch,  and  here  is  a  copy  of  it  : 


198  THE    FORTUNES    OF    RACHEL. 

"  <  Mr.  John  Wolff  will  be  in  Washington  at  the  meet- 
ing proposed,  if  possible. 

"  'RACHEL  WOLFF.' 

"  Now,  if  you  do  not  want  to  go  you  can  say  it  proves 
impossible,  and  you  can  always  shelter  yourself  under 
your  wife's  imbecility.  That  is  an  advantage  married 
men  have,"  said  Rachel.  "  And,  to  confess  the  truth, 
married  women  have  a  similar  advantage." 

"In  this  case,"  said  John,  "there  is  no  doubt  that 
my  old  rule  holds." 

"  I  am  so  glad  you  say  so,"  said  she. 

"  What  is  papa's  old  rule  ?"  asked  that  wise  little  Susie. 

"  This  is  the  rule,  Poll,"  said  her  father,  gravely. 
"  When  you  have  a  choice  to  make,  whether  to  do  a 
thing  you  have  never  done,  or  to  sit  still,  and  there  is 
nothing  wrong  in  the  thing  itself,  it  is  generally  best  to 
do  it. 

11  When  you  are  older,  you  shall  read  Bettina's  letters  ; 
that  is  where  I  found  it." 

"  1  remember  you  said  so,"  said  the  child's  mother. 
"  I  have  looked  for  it  there,  and  I  found  no  such  thing." 

"  Was  it  perhaps  in  '  Fanny  Kemble's  Diary  '  ?" 

So  John  Wolff  went  to  Washington. 

John   Wolf  to  Bachel    Wolff. 

"999  I  STREET,  K  W., 
u  WASHINGTON,  September  6,  1895. 
"  MY  DEAR  CHILD  :  We  have  had  a  day  as  is  a  day. 
I  turned  up  at  Riggs's  at  seven  and  ordered  a  bath. 
After  half  an  hour's  scouring,  most  of  the  dust  and  alkali 
were  floating  down  to  the  Potomac  or  elsewhere,  and  I 


BACHEL'S  AXSWKK.  199 

felt  alive  again.  1  found  a  note  from  Eaudolpb,  and 
met  them  all  at  nine,  which  is  early  here.  They  have 
let  things  drift  to  a  point  inconceivabfe.  But  they  have 
had  the  worst  advice.  It  all  comes  out  why  that  wretch 
Cotterell  blew  his  brains  out.  He  had  held  the  govern- 
ment retainer,  and  had  sold  himself  to  the devil. 

I  had  better  not  mention  names  else.  My  dear,  I  never 
was  quite  so  near  all  infamy  as  1  was  when  we  over- 
hauled this  evidence.  Talfourd,  who  is  a  prince  among 
men,  as  I  suspected  before,  had  been  aghast.  He  had 
told  Randolph,  who  is  perfectly  clean,  though  slow  as  a 
mule,  that  he  would  not  go  on  with  them  one  inch  unless 
they  had  some  man  who  understood  what  he  called 
mountain  practice.  He  said,  of  course,  he  must  be  a 
decent  man,  and  was  pleased  to  name  me. 

"  Whether  we  shall  pull  through,  or  whether  Cotter- 
ell's  senior  and  chief,  whom  1  named  inadvertently 
above,  will  be  too  much  for  us,  a  good  God  knows.  But 
we  shall  see  what  we  shall  see,  and  do  what  we  can  do. 

"  Before  I  came  away  to-day,  as  1  was  studying  affida- 
vits, Talfourd  withdrew  with  the  Attorney-General,  and 
after  they  had  conferred  they  offered  me  a  retainer.  1 
have  accepted  it.  I  am  to  be  the  resident  counsel  here, 
and  take  the  working  oar  in  this  thing  here,  till  we  put 
it  through.  1  am  to  have  offices  in  the  Department  of 
Justice  and  all  the  assistance  I  want.  Uncle  Sam  would 
grow  gray  if  he  knew  what  that  means. 

"  You  will  see,  of  course,  that  you  must  get  ready  to 
move  as  soon  as  I  can  come  for  you.  I  am  afraid  we 
must  leave  most  of  the  things  at  the  Shaft.  You  will 
like  to  keep  the  piano,  and  you  must  consult  the  experts 
about  your  packing.  I  shall  know  in  a  few  days  when 
I  can  come,  and  I  only  say  this  that  you  need  not  be 
wondering.  .  .  ." 


200  THE    FOKTUXES   OF    RACHEL. 

And  the  letter  went  on  into  other  matters,  which  need 
not  here  be  cited.  This  is  enough  to  indicate  what  hap- 
pened. Another  ^iew  life  for  Rachel.  But  this  time 
not  alone  on  one  friendly  ulster,  but  with  these  children  ; 
— care,  if  you  please,  but  comfort  unspeakable.  She  is 
not  seeking  her  place  in  the  world.  Where  she  and 
they  are  together  home  is  ready  made. 

And  John  made  his  flying  last  visit  to  Huddleston's 
Shaft  and  turned  over  to  one  or  two  young  attorneys  in 
the  county  such  matters  as  he  had  in  hand,  which  they 
received  not  ungratefully,  to  see  to  in  his  absence.  For 
the  great  Hegira  itself,  or  march  across  the  desert,  John 
could  not  wait.  Nor  was  it  of  much  importance  that  he 
should.  For  Ephraim  Tait  had  early  announced  that  he 
should  go  with  the  emigrant  party.  "  Hain't  bin  there 
since  '65,  wen  we  marched  up  the  Avenoo,  company 
front.  Last  time  ah  see  Old  Abe,  'n  the  last  time  he 
see  me."  With  Ephraim  at  the  fore,  there  was  little 
danger  of  accident  at  railroad  changes,  though  there  was 
great  certainty  of  comment  and  incident. 

"  Don't  go  so  fast  as  'n  ole  cayoose.  Get  there  quicker 
ef  we  went  afoot,  but  savvy,  yer  mother  would  get  tired. " 
Snch  was  his  comment  to  the  eager  Will  as  they  crossed 
the  plains  at  the  rate  of  fifty  miles  an  hour. 

And  the  readers  of  these  little  sketches  of  Rachel's  life 
must  take  their  leave  of  her  in  Washington.  For  there, 
as  it  proved,  was  to  be  the  longest  anchorage  for  this 
storm-tossed  girl,  who  said  of  herself  that  her  life  was 
typified  when  she  sank  ten  feet  under  water  in  the 
Atlantic,  and  then  rose  again  as  quickly  to  light  and  air. 
Ah  me,  Rachel  !  is  that  any  peculiarity  of  your  life  ?  Is 
there  one  of  us  who  might  not  say  the  same  thing  ? 

Tes.  It  proved,  as  had  been  suspected,  that  this  busi- 
ness of  the  closed  mail  and  transportation  cases  was  not 


HACHKL'S  ANSWER.  201 

to  be  settled  in  three  months  or  in  six.  Indeed,  this  was 
but  the  bugle  call  for  that  great  contest  which  in  years 
upon  years,  before  the  people  and  the  courts,  was  to  decide 
forever,  as  sanguine  men  hoped,  whether  two  or  three 
gigantic  corporations  were  to  control  and  supervise  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  or  whether  the  People 
of  the  United  States  should  supervise  and  control  them. 
In  Randolph,  Talfourd,  and  Wolff,  back  to  back  after 
the  fashion  of  the  bayonet  manual  of  France,  the  coun- 
try had  three  paladins  at  last  who  understood  each  other, 
who  believed  in  the  country,  and  who,  in  years  upon 
years  of  every  simoom  of  dust  and  every  tempest  of  rage, 
never  lost  hope  for  one  minute,  never  announced  one 
victory  before  it  was  won,  never  closed  one  eye  upon  any 
device  of  intrigue,  and  in  the  end  they  were  those  who 
established  the  Supremacy  of  the  People.  Randolph 
could  not  stand  the  strain.  It  was  in  the  administration 
of  the  younger  Clinton  that  this  thing  came  to  a  close. 
And  the  day  after  the  great  decision  Randolph  was  found 
dead  in  his  bed  with  the  smile  of  peace  and  triumph 
upon  his  lips. '  Success  had  lifted  him  from  service  here 
to  service  higher. 

Talfourd  and  Wolff  followed  him  to  the  grave.  And 
as  it  closed  upon  him,  Talfourd  bade  Wolff  good- by. 

"  Yes,  I  shall  go  round  the  world,  I  believe.  There 
may  be  places  in  Siam  and  Japan  where  people  will  not 
talk  to  me  of  this  thing  which  has  finished  poor  Ran- 
dolph. I  take  my  wife  with  me,  and  shall  not  see  you 
for  three  years." 

A  nd,  when  John  Wolff  returned  to  his  home,  he  found 
a  note  from  the  President  asking  if  he  might  name  him 
for  the  vacant  seat  on  the  Supreme  Bench. 

Perhaps  such  condensed  statements  of  history  are  too 
grave  for  the  younger  readers  of  this  tale,  or  perhaps 


^O'i  THE    FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

they  think  so.  If  they  live  till  the  end  of  this  century 
they  will  thank  Kachel  and  John  Wolff  for  turning  their 
thoughts  that  way,  even  when  reading  for  relaxation. 
For  such  readers,  however,  fuller  account  shall  be  given 
of  one  or  two  details  of  Rachel's  life. 

No.  She  had  no  time  for  the  washtub  or  for  the  iron- 
ing-table now.  The  Judge  sometimes  said  that  it  would  be 
better  for  him  if  she  had — that  his  linen  would  be  more 
irreproachable,  and  the  tenure  of  his  buttons  more  per- 
manent. Little  time  had  she  for  Schumann  and  Wagner. 
But  she  would  not  exile  them  wholly.  And  when  her 
gay  reception  parties  of  Tuesday  afternoons  melted  away, 
there  were  generally  two  or  three  of  the  elect  of  the  elect 
who  loitered  ;  and  after  they  had  settled  who  that  queer 
woman  was  who  had  poppies  in  her  corsage,  and  that 
strange  man  with  the  cross,  who  spoke  such  atrocious 
German,  as  the  twilight  hemmed  them  in,  Rachel  would 
be  persuaded  to  turn  her  back  to  the  comforted  and 
comfortable  group,  and  play  something,  just  as  she  had 
been  persuaded  on  the  evening  when  Ephraim  Tait 
offered  them  his  hospitality  so  suddenly. 

But  one  episode  must  be  told  separately,  or  the  story 
will  be  too  incomplete,  even  for  a  hurried  reader. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


NEW    YEAR'S    DAY   INDEED. 

"  Another  year, 
Alas  !  how  swiftly  do  these  years  fleet  by." 

Love  and  Politics. 

THAT  is  a  very  queer  feeling  which  comes  over  people 
•when  the  name  of  the  century  changes.  Even  to  change 
1884  to  1885  is  a  jerk — a  jerk  in  which  sometimes  the 
thread  of  memory  breaks,  and  the  old  machine  does  not 
run  precisely.  But  to  change  1899  into  1900,  this  seems 
to  rock  the  very  foundations  of  the  world. 

When  that  hoary,  wicked,  torturing,  analyzing,  and 
bloody,  worthless  old  eighteenth  century  gave  signal  of 
going  out — when  1799  gave  way  to  1800 — all  America 
•was  touched  to  the  heart,  as  day  after  day,  to  city  or  to 
hamlet,  crept  along  the  news  that  George  Washington 
was  dead.  In  nearly  three-score  and  ten  years  he  had 
given  to  the  hoary  old  calendar  its  brightest  name. 
What  would  this  new-born  eighteen  hundred  have  to 
offer  of  glory  or  of  shame  ? 

Vain  to  say  that  1800  is  only  the  end  of  the  old  cent- 
ury, and  that  we  must  wait  another  year  before  a  new 
century  begins  ! 

A  great  deal  is  in  a  name,  dear  Juliet,  and  wllen  the 
year  is  once  called  1800,  people  will  look  eastward  and 
welcome  the  rising  sun. 

But  this  is  all  that  these  pages  shall  reveal  of  the  out- 


204  THE   FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

ward  surroundings,  the  hopes  or  the  fears,  with  which, 
by  previous  appointment  made,  Judge  Wolff  and  his 
wife,  and  Thomas  Poore  and  his,  met  at  the  Delmonico's 
of  the  day  for  lunch,  before  going  to  Tiffany's  as  by  the 
old  appointment.  They  were  to  give  the  history  of  the 
shares  in  the  Stocking-Loom,  and  they  were  to  deter- 
mine what  should  be  the  investment  of  the  proceeds. 

But  where  was  Miss  Ruth  Cordis  ?  Had  she  forgotten 
the  appointment  ?  Had  she  crossed  the  seas  or  the  con- 
tinent ?  Or  had  consumption  like  a  worm  in  the  bud 
preyed  on  her  fair  cheek  and  consigned  her  to  an  early 
grave  ? 

Dear  reader,  you  may  spare  your  tears.  You  do  not 
recognize  the  girl  of  sixteen  whom  you  last  saw  when 
Satan  entered  into  her  and  she  rebuffed  Miss  Willard, 
when  she  al&o  had  been  possessed  by  him  or  one  of  his. 

Too  many  years  have  passed,  and  the  "  Fortunes  of 
Ruth"  have  been  too  much  varied  for  her  to  escape  the 
changes  which  will  come.  But,  let  us  confess  it,  this  is 
Ruth  Cordis  who  comes  in  with  Tom  Poore  ;  who  takes 
Rachel  by  both  hands  and  kisses  her  so  exuberantly. 
Yes,  Ruth  Cordis  and  Mrs.  Thomas  Poore  are  one  and 
the  same  ! 

This  book  is  not  the  "  Fortunes  of  Ruth.' '  This  book 
must  not  attempt  to  tell  her  history.  But  this  may  be 
told  briefly,  that  when  Thomas  Poore  had  bravely  taken 
down  his  porcelain  picture  and  sent  it  anonymously  to 
Miss  Finley,  he  did  his  best  as  well  to  eradicate  her 
image  from  his  heart.  In  that  duty,  what  more  natural 
than  that,  when  he  heard  one  day  that  Miss  Ruth  Cordis 
was  at  Mrs.  Allibone's  on  a  visit,  he  should  call  on  her 
to  see  her  and  to  talk  over  old  times  ?  They  talked  over 
old  times  and  new  times.  They  talked  about  Rachel, 
about  Aunt  Lois  "Winchell,  about  Hitchin,  about  every- 


NEW    YEAR  S    DAY    INDEED.  205 

thing  except  the  New  England  Stocking  Company. 
They  talked  about  books  and  music  and  the  opera  and 
the  play.  They  talked  about  Ruth's  plans  for  Europe, 
and  the  route  her  father  was  going  to  take  there.  It 
happened — who  knows  how  ? — that  Mr.  Poore  met  them 
in  this  summer  "  outing.1'  They  met  at  Brussels,  and 
they  went  together  to  Cologne  and  up  the  Rhine.  As  it 
happened,  his  route  and  theirs  were  very  much  the  same. 
And  the  end  of  the  journey  was  that  when  they  had 
come  home  they  had  agreed  to  take  a  longer  journey  to- 
gether. And  this  is  how  and  why  it  happened  that  they 
two  came  together  to  Delmonico's,  if  it  were  Delmon- 
ico's,  as  has  been  told. 

As  for  John  Wolff,  he  came  because  Rachel  would 
not  come  without  him. 

"  1  have  brought  here  my  copy  of  the  '  Arabian 
Nights,' ' '  said  Tom  Poore,  after  his  introduction  to 
Judge  "Wolff  was  happily  over,  "  and  here  is  a  picture  of 
us  all.  See,  here  are  the  '  Tales  of  the  Three  Calen- 
dars.' I  never  knew  before  what  a  calendar  was.  The 
only  other  place  where  he  appears  in  literature  is  in  John 
Gilpin.  But  we  are  three  Calendars.  It  appears  that 
Calendars  are  shareholders  in  a  Stocking-Loom  Com- 
pany. 

"Now  listen  to  the 


"  Tale  of  the  First  Calendar. 

"  When  Heft  the  party  at  Mrs.  Barnard's  I  carried  my 
certificate  of  stock  with  me,  and  1  put  it  under  my 
pillow  when  1  went  to  bed." 

"  Nonsense,"  said  his  wife  ;  "  you  did  no  such  thing, 
and  you  know  it." 

"  Second  Calendar,"  replied  Tom  Poore,  "you  may 


206  THE    FORTUNES    OF    RACHEL. 

tell  your  story  when  your  turn  comes.  Let  me  tell  mine 
now. 

"  Under  my  pillow  the  shares  reposed.  In  the  night 
my  good  genie  spoke  to  me  : 

"  '  Tom,'  said  the  genie,  *  keep  what  you've  got,  and 
get  what  you  can. ' 

"  I  obeyed.  I  bought  me  three  hundred  other  shares 
in  the  company.  The  other  stockholders  were  surprised, 
and  made  me  treasurer.  I  did  not  go  to  Bussora.  I 
stayed  at  home.  I  traded  with  the  shares,  and  I  sold  the 
stockings.  Before  I  knew  it  the  shares  were  worth  $500 
each,  and  I  was  a  rich  man.  The  original  certificate  1 
sold  when  the  market  was  at  the  highest.  The  panic 
came,  and  all  the  stocks  went  down  like  mad,  and  with 
the  proceeds  of  that  sale  I  bought  three  shares.  The 
panic  ended,  and  the  shares  rose  again  steadily  for  five 
years,  when  I  sold  again.  The  crash  of  1893  came,  and 
everybody  supposed  manufacturing  was  at  an  end.  At 
the  lowest  depression  I  bought  Stocking  shares  again. 
And  so  on,  and  so  on.  My  original  share,  which  cost 
two  dollars  and  a  half,  has  been  in  turn  six  hundred  and 
seventy  dollars,  then  three  shares,  then  seventeen  hun- 
dred and  thirty-one  dollars,  then  eleven  shares.  When 
the  company  sold  out  and  wound  up  two  years  ago,  the 
eleven  shares  yielded  six  thousand  and  fifty  dollars, 
and  here  it  is  for  the  disposition  of  the  conspira- 
tors." 

Tom  Poore  beckoned  to  a  quiet  man  who  was  stand- 
ing at  the  side  of  the  room,  and  he  brought  a  little  trav- 
elling-bag. Tom  opened  it  and  lifted  out  a  gold  sugar 
loaf  weighing  more  than  twenty  pounds,  which  he  set  in 
the  middle  of  the  table. 

"  This,"  said  he,  "  is  the  end  of  the  First  Calendar's 
story." 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY  INDEED.  2'~>7 


/Story  of  the  Second  Calendar. 

"1  am  sorry  to  say,"  said  Mrs.  Poore,  "what  my 
,  husband  does  not  appear  to  know,  that  in  the  improved 
versions  of  the  '  Arabian  lights '  the  '  Calendars '  appear 
as  '  Royal  Mendicants.'  If  Mrs.  Wolff  and  I  appear  in 
that  character  before  this  distinguished  and  learned 
Judge,  I  hope  he  will  remember  that  it  is  my  husband 
who  has  assumed  it,  and  not  either  of  us  ladies.  We 
did  not  receive  the  shares  as  mendicants.  It  was  a 
mendicant,  perhaps,  who  thrust  them  upon  us,  as  Miss 
Willard  said. 

"  On  the  sad  fate  of  Miss  Willard,  I  will  say  nothing. 

"  For  myself,  not  many  years  after  THE  SHARE 
fell  into  my  possession,  I  intrusted  all  my  worldly  goods 
and  the  keeping  of  them  to  the  young  man  who  has  just 
now  addressed  you.  He  consented  to  add,  from  year  to 
year,  the  interest  of  his  share,  of  which  but  for  two 
years  he  has  said  nothing,  to  the  interest  of  mine.  I 
preferred  to  direct  the  use  of  this  interest,  although 
until  my  marriage  I  had  let  it  accumulate. 

"  Visiting  dear  Hannah  Valentine  one  summer,  who 
is  now  Mrs.  Elkanah  Hornby,  I  found  her  husband  evi- 
dently failing  in  strength,  and  that  the  oversight  of  her 
four  lovely  children* came  mostly  upon  her.  The  next 
year  1  found,  and  I  was  not  surprised  to  find,  that  he 
had  died  in  the  spring. 

"  Talking  with  Hannah,  I  found  that  she  hated  to 
give  up  the  dear  old  home.  She  hated  to  leave  Ilitchin. 
John  Hornby,  in  a  Avay,  carried  on  the  farm.  But  you 
know  what  a  Hitchin  farm  is.  Elkanah  had  left  her  a 
little  '  in  the  bank,'  as  they  say.  Hannah  was  prudence 
and  wisdom  itself  as  a  manager.  '  But  there  is  very  little 


208  THE    FOKTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

ready  money,  Ruth,'  she  said,  with  that  lovely  smile  of 
hers. 

"  Ko  inspiration  came  to  me  then.  But  in  September, 
when  the  mother  of  one  of  my  Sunday-school  children 
died  and  left  her  an  orphan,  I  wrote  to  Hannah,  and 
I  asked  her  if  she  would  take  Gertrude  Tusan  to  live 
with  her,  and  would  bring  her  up  in  the  good  old  Hitchin 
ways,  if  I  would  pay  her  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a 
year.  Hannah  answered  as  if  I  had  been  an  angel  from 
heaven,  offering  her  a  lily,  a  harp,  and  a  crown.  Ger- 
trude went.  One  half  the  Stocking  dividend  for  that 
year  paid  for  her.  It  was  '  ready  money '  to  Hannah, 
and  Gertrude  had  the  most  blessed  home.  The  next 
year  Tom  Tusan,  Gertrude's  brother,  went  to  make  her 
a  visit.  But  he  never  came  back.  And  I  sent  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  dollars  more  every  year  for  him.  The 
next  year  we  sent  down  the  prettiest  little  Italian  orphan 
you  ever  say,  and  that  year  my  husband  made  one  of 
these  changes  in  investment  he  tells  you  of.  Gertrude 
Tusan  was  long  since  Mrs.  Rudolph  Alston.  Mary 
Tusan,  that's  a  younger  sister  yet,  is  Mrs.  Walter  Wads- 
worth  ;  but  other  orphans  have  been  raised  up  from  time 
to  time.  The  stocks,  as  you  know,  have  long  since  been 
paid  off,  but  the  money  is  in  '  Interminable  seven  per 
cents,'  which,  thanks  to  our  friend  Judge  Wolff,  are 
miles  above  par  in  the  market.  My  interest  is  about 
three  hundred  a  year.  That  royal  mendicant's,"  and 
she  nodded  to  her  husband,  "  is  three  hundred  more. 

"  These  six  hundred  make  for  four  children  a  perfect 
home  at  dear  Hannah  Valentine's. 

"  If  you  care,  here  are  the  pictures  of  the  Tusan  girls, 
the  Tusan  boy,  of  the  Amoretti  child  ;  those  three  are 
Tucker  children ;  that  pretty  blonde  is  a  little  Swedish 
girl  named  Hartstein — there  are,  I  think,  nine  in  all 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY  INDEED.  209 

who  have  been  there  or  are  there  now.     And  here  is 

dear  Hannah.     Have  you  ever  seen  a  Madonna  like  her, 

Judge  Wolff  ? 

11  This  is  the  end  of  the  second  beggar's  story." 
"And  now  for  Mrs.  Wolff,"  said  Mr.  Poore,  well 

pleased  by  his  lively  wife's  exhibit. 


The  Third  Calendar's  Story. 

"  Our  story,"  said  Rachel,  "for  it  is  really  mine  and 
my  husband's,  is  shorter  and  less  eventful.  Our  share  also 
rose  to  the  fabulous  price  of  six  hundred  and  seventy  dol- 
lars, and  we  sold.  My  first  investment  was  in  the  piano  1 
took  to  the  mountains,  and,  I  will  confess  it,  in  chairs  and 
tables,  bedsteads,  and  also  a  lovely  set  of  china,  Mr. 
Poore" — and  here  Rachel  looked  him  steadily  in  the  eye, 
and  he  was  not  sorry  that  she  did — "  which  1  bought  that  I 
might  recollect  three  times  a  day  Mr.  Thomas  Poore's 
kindness  to  a  friendless  girl.  But  these  were  only  loans 
to  some  poor  people  of  our  acquaintance.  And  the 
Judge  there  chose  to  repay  it  all,  and  I  chose  to  have 
him.  He  invested  and  waited,  and  I  was  frightened  as 
those  Rocky  Mountain  dividends — fifteen  per  cent, 
twenty  per  cent,  and  the  like — came  in.  I  had  heard 
Aunt  Lois  say,  '  High  interest,  poor  security.'  ' 

Tom  Poore  bowed  approval  of  the  general  sentiment. 

"One  day,"  she  continued,  "dear  dreamy  Arthur 
Clarke  came  in.  I  never  knew  whether  he  were  going 
to  read  me  a  sonnet  or  talk  black-letter  law  to  my  hus- 
band. This  time  he  came  to  talk  Cinnabar.  To  his 
assaying  office  a  wild  prospector  had  brought  a  heavy 
lump  of  stone,  thinking  it  held  silver.  It  did  hold 
.quicksilver. 

"  Arthur  had  a  thousand  dollars  to  put  into  that  mine. 


210  THE    FORTUNES    OF    RACHEL. 

"  He  wanted  my  husband  to  put  in  another  thousand." 

"  And  he  did  ?"  almost  screamed  Thomas  Poore. 

"Redid." 

"  You  say  your  husband  was  one  of  the  first  in  the 
New  Ydria  Mine?" 

"  The  stock  was  in  my  name.  1  was  there  and  am. 
I  then  held  one  twentieth  of  the  property,  now  it  is  only 
one  fortieth.  Here  are  the  certificates.  They  belong 
to  the  conspirators."  And  she  laid  the  titles,  almost 
priceless,  on  the  table. 

Even  Tom  Poore,  well  balanced  as  he  was,  flushed  as 
she  quietly  told  the  story.  This  woman,  because  she 
called  herself  trustee  of  this  fund  of  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  dollars,  had  gone  into  a  wilderness  and  worked 
her  own  hands  to  the  bone  without  touching  a  copper  of  it. 

"  With  the  other  half,"  she  said,  "  my  husband  built 
the  building  and  provided  the  endowment  for  the  Rocky 
Mountain  Institute  for  the  Orphan  Sons  of  Miners. 
That  is  its  real  name.  But  he  always  insisted  that  they 
should  pay  a  good  deal  of  attention  to  drill  and  tactics. 
And  it  was  those  boys  who  saved  our  house  the  night  of 
the  riot,  which  you  remember,  Ruth.  We  propose,  if 
Mr.  Poore  will  give  Mr.  Gaudens  the  sittings  for  a  like- 
ness, to  have  his  statue  placed  in  the  hall,  by  way  of  in- 
troducing the  century. 

"  This  is  the  end  of  my  story." 

So  they  fell  to  their  shrimp  salad  and  Charlotte  Russe. 

And  after  the  lunch  they  went  to  Tiffany's,  and,  as  had 
been  determined,  they  bought  a  little  diamond  ring  for 
Miss  Willard. 

"  It  shall  be  marked,"  said  Tom,  <  Out  of  evil  educ- 
ing good.'  ' 

"  It  shall  not,"  said  his  wife.  "  It  shaU  be  marked 
with  that  about  Joseph,  '  God  did  send  me. '  ' 


NEW    YEAH-    DAY    INDEED.  211 

"No,"  said  Ruth,  "it  shall  be  marked,  <  Love, 
Faith,  and  Hope." 

And  it  was. 

But  they  all  knew  that  Miss  Willard  was  abjectly 
poor.  Her  crossness  had  poisoned  life  for  her.  As  all 
ill-tempered  people  do,  she  had  brought  punishment  on 
herself.  Yet  to  that  ill-temper  they  owed  so  much  !  It 
was  agreed  that  five  thousand  dollars  of  the  accumula- 
tions should  be  spent  in  an  annuity  for  her. 

And  for  the  rest  it  was  determined  that  the  Orphan 
Institute  should  go  on,  and  that  Hannah  Hornby's  house 
should  be  kept  as  full  as  she  wished  it  kept,  even  until 
she  died. 


CHAPTER  XXII.    AND   LAST. 

OLD   FKIENDS    AND   NEW. 

"Come,  come,  leave  business  to  idlers  and  fools,  they  have  need  of 
them.  Wit  be  my  faculty  and  pleasure  my  occupation." — Congreve. 

OF  all  cities  yet  discovered  in  this  world,  Washington 
seems  to  be  that  where  society  has  organized  itself  with 
most  skill.  Or  is  it  tenderness  ?  Or  is  it  both  ?  No 
place  exists  where  the  tired  and  way-worn  man  of  brains 
and  work  can  take  his  holiday  so  easily.  As  soon  as  the 
dust  and  alkali  of  travel  are  washed  off,  if  one  may  quote 
John  Wolff's  letter,  some  of  the  most  charming  houses 
in  the  world  are  open  to  him,  if  he  be  good  for  any- 
thing, and  he  may  take  his  ease  till  it  is  his  turn  to  go 
back  to  his  grinding.  In  the  pleasant,  unaffected  homes 
of  people  of  whom  he  has  heard  of  all  his  life- — some  of 
whom  are  rich  and  some  of  whom  are  not  rich,  but  all  of 
whom  under  that  same  law  of  selection  have  won  the 
respect  of  their  fellows — such  a  traveller  finds  the  largest 
variety  of  society  ;  he  knows  what  the  world  is  ;  indeed, 
he  is  himself  at  his  best. 

Of  such  pretty  homes  Rachel  Wolff's  was  one  of  the 
prettiest.  So  everybody  in  Washington  knew,  and  who- 
ever else  was  forgotten  on  Tuesday  afternoon  she  was 
not  forgotten.  And  Rachel  had,  by  instinct  or  by  train- 
ing, the  art  of  finding  out  people  whom  nobody  else 
found,  who  were  at  the  same  time  the  people  the  best 
worth  knowing. 


OLD    FRIENDS   AND   HEW.  213 

"What  magic  was  it  which  kept  away  from  her  the 
tricksters  and  shysters,  the  pretenders  who  are  so  apt  to 
put  in  their  heads  wherever  hospitality  is  easy,  and 
how  did  she  manage  to  annihilate  them  ?  No  man  can 
tell  what  this  magic  was.  But  somehow,  in  that  house, 
the  two  poles  of  attraction  and  repulsion  were  at  their 
best.  The  nice  people  came  and  the  bores  stayed  away. 

It  was  in  the  middle  of  a  charming  afternoon  when 
talk  had  been  at  its  liveliest.  Fifty  people  had  come 
and  gone,  any  one  of  whom  would  have  made  the  fort- 
une of  an  afternoon  tea-party  in  any  other  city  in  the 
land.  As  Rachel  stood  talking  with  the  German  Minis- 
ter, Sir  Henry  Jackson  came  to  her. 

"  My  dear  Mrs.  Wolff,  I  have  a  great  favor  to  ask  of 
you,  and  you  are  always  so  good-natured." 

"  That  means,"  said  Rachel  to  the  Baron  Grimm, 
"  that  I  gave  him  a  cup  of  weak  tea  yesterday  at  the 
Chevalier's.  Pray  go  on,  Sir  Henry ;  we  will  see  if  I 
can  consistently  grant  your  favor. " 

"  I  want  to  present  to  you  a  young  countryman  of 
mine  ;  indeed,  he  comes  to  me  with  the  best  of  letters, 
but  he  is,  oh,  so  shy." 

"  Are  you  not  used  to  that  yet,  at  the  Legation  ?"  said 
Rachel,  laughing  ;  "  you  know  we  all  think  that  you  are 
modesty  itself." 

"  Tou  are  too  good,"  he  said  ;  "  but  I  see  that  you 
consent,  and  that  you  will  introduce  my  young  friend, 
who  really  deserves  it  of  your  kindness,  to  some  of  your 
nice  people.  What  he  is  good  for  I  do  not  know,  but 
his  father  is  our  distinguished  Dr.  Balfour,  the  correla- 
tion man." 

"  Not  Dr.  Balfour  who  died  last  year — Dr.  Balfour  of 
Appleby  ?" 

"  The  same." 


214  THE   FORTUNES    OF   RACHEL. 

"  My  dear  Sir  Henry,  you  do  not  know  how  happy 
you  make  me.  Pray  bring  your  young  friend  to  me  at 
once." 

And  the  frightened  boy  came,  not  knowing  whether 
he  held  his  hat  or  not,  and  holding  it  as  badly  as  a  hat 
could  be  held  ;  not  knowing  how  to  say  "  Yes"'  or  how 
to  say  "  No,"  and  whether  he  should  speak  English  or 
Choctaw,  and  wishing  indeed  that  he  were  in  the  bottom 
of  the  sea.  And  yet  in  thirty  seconds  that  poor  fright- 
ened tender-foot  was  at  ease,  had  forgotten  that  he  was 
three  thousand  miles  from  home,  even  had  forgotten 
that  he  had  been  so  wretched  a  minute  before.  "  My 
dear  Mr.  Balfour,  your  father  was  one  of  the  dearest 
friends  I  had  in  the  world,  and  you — I  wonder  whether  I 
saw  you  when  you  were  a  baby  ?  Tell  me  all  about  dear 
Appleby,  and  tell  me  about  Bongate  and  St.  Laurence's 
and  the  vicar.  Who  is  the  vicar  now  ?  Who  is  at  Sir 
Robert  Tufton's  old  place  ?  I  saw  the  death  of  Mr. 
Playfair."  And  so  she  went  on,  gossipping  about  old 
Appleby  days.  And,  to  his  amazement  and  eventual 
ruin  in  society,  young  Mr.  Balfour  found  that  the  finest 
woman  in  Washington  knew  every  inch  of  his  native 
place  as  well  as  he  did.  His  ruin  dated  from  the  misfort- 
une that,  having  always  supposed  himself  to  be  the  most 
important  person  in  the  world,  he  thus  leaped  to  the 
other  delusion  that  his  distant  home  was  the  best  known 
place  in  it.  But  on  this  occasion,  for  once,  if  never 
again,  he  reaped  the  full  advantage  of  being  born  in 
Appleby.  Rachel  presented  him  to  the  sweetest  girl  in 
Washington.  She  did  this  with  such  empressement  that 
the  girl  knew  or  thought  that  this  stiff  young  English- 
man was  somebody.  They  withdrew  for  a  little,  and 
then  Rachel  gave  the  young  gentlemen,  who  were  her 
devoted  aids,  to  understand  that  if  this  little  Englishman 


OLD    FRIENDS   AXD    XEW.  215 

did  not  have  the  best  that  "Washington  could  give  during 
all  his  stay,  they  should  all  be  flayed  alive,  themselves 
hanged  and  quartered,  and  their  bones  exposed  to  the 
malediction  of  the  world.  Why  this  particular  oaf  was 
to  be  so  honored  no  one  at  first  understood.  But  to 
those  who  asked  the  fewest  questions,  Rachel  eventual] v 
condescended  to  say  that  Appleby  was  the  place  where 
she  was  born,  that  she  had  seen  no  one  who  came  from 
it  in  many,  many  years,  and  that  even  if  the  oaf  had 
been  an  old  beggarman  from  the  almshouse,  he  should 
have  dined  with  the  diplomats  at  the  next  state  dinner  at 
the  White  House,  had  he  expressed  any  desire  to  do  so. 

But  it  was  not  simply  to  old  townsmen  that  Rachel 
was  good  and  kind.  Was  it  a  habit  which  had  grown 
upon  her,  because  she  had  been  herself  utterly  friendless 
so  often  ;  or  was  it  a  divine  instinct,  the  same  which  had 
found  friends  for  her  in  her  loneliness  ?  Something 
there  was — call  it  gift,  call  it  genius,  as  you  choose — 
which  so  worked  in  Rachel  that  she  always  found  out 
friendless  people  and  put  them  at  their  very  best. 

She  beckoned  Lieutenant  Watson  to  her,  and  he  flew 
across  the  room.  "  Lieutenant  Watson,  I  have  not 
thanked  you  for  the  miracle  you  worked  last  Tuesday. 
All  the  same,  I  knew  you  worked  it,  and  I  was  grateful." 

The  lieutenant  bowed  and  blushed.  He  knew  per- 
fectly well  what  she  meant.  He  had  discovered  at 
Riggs's  the  most  eminent  man  of  music  of  his  day,  who 
happened  to  be  in  America  with  his  daughter.  The 
man  of  music  had  not  known  enough  to  register  his 
name  at  the  hotel,  and  the  hotel  people  had  sent  him  up 
to  the  sixteenth  story.  Lieutenant  Watson  had  discov- 
ered him,  much  as  Huddleston  had  discovered  the  nugget 
which  made  his  shaft  famous.  The  musician  had  not 
been  in  his  attic  five  minutes  before  the  lieutenant  had 


216  THE   FORTUNES   OF   RACHEL. 

exhumed  him,  had  abused  the  gentlemanly  clerk  of  the 
hotel,  and  had  seen  that  these  distinguished  people  were 
placed  in  rooms  worthy  of  the  chapelmaster  of  the  Em- 
peror of  Germany.  And  before  the  chapelmaster  and 
his  daughter  were  an  hour  older,  they  were  in  full  dress 
and  were  at  Rachel's  reception,  wondering  at  the  prompt- 
ness of  Washington  hospitality. 

"  I  know  the  miracle,  my  dear  Mr.  Watson,  though  1 
did  not  thank  you  for  it  at  the  moment,  and  to-day  I  am 
going  to  reward  yon. " 

"I  have  my  reward  already,"  said  the  young  man, 
well  pleased  that  his  success  was  known. 

"  That  is  very  fine,  but  at  this  court  when  we  reward 
people  we  reward  them  with  something  tangible.  Now 
you  think  I  am  going  to  give  you  a  diamond-mounted 
epaulette,  or  perhaps  that  I  am  going  to  ask  the  Secre- 
tary of  War  to  advance  you  forty-seven  numbers  on  the 
promotion  list.  Such  rewards  would  be  carnal.  Indeed, 
mine  are  of  a  much  more  ethereal  character.  I  am  going 
to  introduce  you  to  the  finest  woman  in  America. ' ' 

"  I  need  no  introduction,"  said  the  lieutenant,  bowing 
low. 

"  Wait  until  you  have  tried  before  you  repeat  your 
compliments.  She  is  in  this  room  now,  and  you  young 
men  are  so  dull  that  you  haven't  found  her  out.  But  I 
had  found  her  out  before  she  had  been  here  two  minutes. 
And  you,  with  all  your  miracle-working,  are  so  stupid 
that  you  have  let  that  creature  sit  for  ten  minutes  in  a 
tete-a-tete  with  old  Mrs.  Mimroe,  who  is  so  deaf  that  she 
has  not  heard  one  word  which  my  Hebe  has  spoken  to 
her." 

The  lieutenant  turned  toward  the  tete-d-tete  chair  and 
looked  his  astonishment. 

"  Do  not  pretend  to  be  astonished.     I  know  more  than 


OLD    FRIENDS    AND    NK\V.  217 

von  do,  and  you  know  I  do.  Come  to  me  a  week  hence, 
and  if  you  say  I  am  wrong  you  shall  have  the  diamond 
epaulette  and  the  promotion."  And  so  she  presented 
him  to  that  unassuming,  quiet  Mary  Van  Nostrand,  the 
level-headed,  bright,  quaint,  fascinating  Nantucket  girl, 
who  was  the  rage  of  Washington  for  the  rest  of  the  sea- 
son, and  of  whom,  from  the  beginning,  Watson  was  the 
humblest  servant. 

How  had  Rachel  discovered  the  capabilities  and  quali- 
ties of  this  quaint  girl  in  the  thirteen  words  which  had 
passed  between  them  as  Mrs.  Randolph  presented  her  '. 

Who  shall  say  ?  Genius  or  talent,  have  it  as  you 
choose — only  these  were  the  wonders  which  made  her 
home  so  charming. 

"  What  can  you  tell  us  of  our  new  sovereign,  Mrs. 
Wolff  ?"  said  Sir  Henry  Jackson,  as  he  returned  to  her 
at  the  end  of  an  hour.  "  I  do  not  mean  the  new  Presi- 
dent, of  course  ;  we  all  know  him,  but  what  is  much 
more  important  to  you  and  me,  how  is  it  about  the 
President's  wife  ?  Will  she  question  us  about  the  cate- 
chism, or  will  she  ask  me  what  is  the  pattern  of  the 
Queen's  gown?" 

"  Sir  Henry,  if  you  talk  any  treason  in  this  room  you 
shall  never  enter  it  again.  Kay,  I  see  the  Secretary  of 
State  has  come  in,  and  he  shall  say  in  a  cablegram  to-night 
that  your  presence  is  disagreeable  to  this  government." 

"  Indeed,  indeed,  Mrs.  Wolff,  I  have  talked  no  trea- 
son. I  have  breathed  none.  1  only  want  to  know  how 
to  prepare  myself  for  the  first  reception.  My  duty  is  to 
create  the  most  favorable  impression  that  I  can,  and  tho 
truth  is  that  1  am  in  the  least  bit  weak  on  the  very  last 
questions  of  the  catechism.  1  know  all  about  the  condi- 
tion of  life  to  which  I  am  called,  and  just  at  this  moment 
I  am  very  well  satisfied  with  it." 


218  THE  FORTUNES   OF    RACHEL. 

"  Very  good.  Now  you  are  humble  and  speak  as  you 
ought.  I  will  tell  you  that  she  is  one  of  my  oldest  and 
dearest  friends." 

"  Oh,  Mrs.  Wolff,  do  not  exaggerate.  Such  things 
can  be  carried  too  far,  even  in  diplomacy.  She  is  one  of 
your  oldest  friends,  somewhat  as  Miss  Yan  Nostrand  is, 
who,  as  I  know,  Mrs.  Randolph  has  presented  to  you  this 
afternoon  for  the  first  time.  Dearest  friend,  of  course 
she  is,  because  you  are  so  good  to  everybody." 

"Cannot  an  ambassador  believe  anything?"  said 
Rachel.  "  You  know  perfectly  well  that  I  am  not  in 
the  service,  and  that  I  speak  truth  '  from  native  impulse, 
elemental  force. '  It  is  as  queer  to  you  as  it  is  to  me, 
but  the  simple  truth  is  that  the  first  time  in  my  life  when 
I  ever  saw  what  a  girl  calls  a  party — I  mean  the  first  timo 
when  I  had  a  new  frock  given  me  that  I  might  wear  it 
to  a  party — I  met  this  lady.  So  1  can  tell  you  frankly 
that,  as  I  was  then  fourteen  and  she  was  sixteen,  she  is 
two  years  older  than  1.  She  was  then,  probably  is  now. 
This  was  at  what  we  call  in  New  England  a  '  sewing 
circle.'  Whether  such  things  exist  at  Windsor  I  am 
not  quite  sure.  I  was  the  most  frightened  person  in  the 
room,  and  Miss  Ruth  Cordis — that  was  this  lady's  name 
before  she  was  married — was  almost  as  badly  frightened 
as  I.  Misery  likes  misery,  and  we  sat  down  together. 
I  suppose  she  threaded  my  needle  for  me  ;  very  likely  she 
held  my  teacup  while  I  folded  up  my  work.  That  was 
the  beginning,  but  we  lived  together  in  the  same  village 
for  two  or  three  years  after  that,  and  there  are  few 
things  we  have  not  done  together.  1  have  climbed 
chestnut  trees  with  her.  1  have  forded  brooks  with  her. 
I  have  caught  trout  with  her,  and  fried  them  and  eaten 
them  wholly  unknown  to  the  home  people.  I  have  gone 
to  singing-school  with  her  ;  she  has  sung  one  part  when  I 


OLD   FRIENDS   AND  NEW.  219 

gang  another  at  a  school  exhibition.  Nay,  I  have  even 
received  her  confidences  on  occasions  of  early  passion — 
confidences  which  I  shall  still  respect,  and  shall  by  no 
means  repeat  to  her  excellent  husband.  "Why,  indeed, 
Sir  Henry,  from  this  very  gentleman,  our  new  President, 
we  both  received  queer  presents  in  those  prehistoric 
days.  I  have  mine  now,  and  I  dare  say  she  has  hers. ' ' 

"  Might  a  diplomat  venture  to  suggest,"  said  Sir 
Henry,  laughing  at  this  description,  "  that  it  might  have 
been  a  great  blessing  to  this  country  had  the  new  Chief 
Magistrate  pressed  his  advances  in  another  direction  ?'' 

"  No,  Sir  Henry  ;  diplomats  must  not  talk  nonsense. 
That  is  the  first  rule  of  our  service,  and  I  fancy  it  is  in 
yours.  When  you  come  to  know  Mr.  Tom  Poore  better 
than  you  seem  to  do,  you  will  find  that  he  is  a  man  to 
whom  nobody  gives  much  advice  ;  who  is  apt  in  his  quiet 
way  to  look  out  for  other  people  more  than  he  looks  out 
for  himself  ;  lie  generally  succeeds  in  what  he  determines 
to  do,  and  his  friends  are  glad  that  he  has  succeeded. 

"  But  we  are  old  friends,  Sir  Henry,  and  if  you  like 
to  come  to  me  next  Tuesday  I  will  tell  you  all  about  the 
new  sovereign  lady  and  her  present  plans.  For  they  are 
coming  directly  to  this  house  on  Friday,  and  will  stay 
here  until  the  Clintons  leave  the  White  House.  What- 
ever is  proper  for  you  to  communicate  to  your  govern- 
ment, you  shall  be  told  next  Tuesday  after  Mrs.  Poore 
and  I  have  talked  it  over  together." 

Let  us  hope  that  the  communication  made  to  the  Eng- 
lish Minister  on  the  whole  advanced  the  kingdom  of 
righteousness  and  truth  ;  that  Eachel  opened  everything 
that  was  to  be  opened,  and  withheld  everything  that  was 
to  be  withheld.  For  information  on  that  point,  how- 
ever, the  reader  must  turn  elsewhere.  This  book  is  not 
the  history  of  the  diplomacy  of  the  twentieth  century. 


220  THE   FORTUNES   OF   RACHEL. 

The  inauguration  came  and  went,  and  all  things  were 
prosperous.  Almost  as  a  matter  of  course  Rachel  was 
Ruth's  principal  counsellor  in  the  mysteries  of  a  life  that 
was  so  new  to  her,  of  the  etiquettes  of  the  White  House 
and  of  the  city.  The  two  ladies  met,  as  if  they  were 
two  school-girls  again,  and  had  endless  talks  of  what  had 
passed  since  Hitchin  days — talks  mostly  of  the  fortunes 
of  their  children,  sometimes  of  those  children's  health, 
sometimes  of  their  morals.  Thomas  Poore  managed  his 
affairs  with  admirahle  good  sense  and  good  humor  com- 
bined. The  traits  which  had  brought  him  to  the  front — 
none  of  the  politicians  could  tell  how — served  him  when 
he  was  at  the  front.  A  man  who  always  made  friends, 
and  acted  as  if  he  had  no  enemies. 

Fortunately  for  this  reader  and  this  author,  nothing 
more  need  be  said  here  of  the  politics  or  statesmanship 
on  which  Thomas  Poore's  cabinet  was  founded.  In  the 
twentieth  century  it  was  as  true  as  in  the  first,  that  the 
eternities  are  Faith,  Hope,  and  Love.  On  these  that  ad- 
ministration was  founded.  Enough  here  to  say  that  the 
PEOPLE  had  triumphed,  and  that  Tom  Poore  with  a 
firm  hand  represented  them,  and  terrified  all  their  adver- 
saries. 

It  is  not  with  his  affairs  that  we  are  concerned. 

The  day  came  at  last  when  his  wife  was  to  receive 
u  for  the  first  time."  Of  course  she  summoned  Rachel 
to  be  at  her  side  to  help  her,  with  Mrs.  Pickering  and 
the  pretty  Miss  Rutledge.  As  they  stood  together, 
wondering  who  might  be  the  Protesilaus,  who  should 
first  attack  their  well-defended  line  Ruth  said  to  Rachel, 
"  It  will  be  one  of  your  wood-cutters  from  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  Rachel  said  to  Ruth,  it  will  be  "  Deacon 
Eberle  from  Hitchin."  The  usher  threw  open  the  door 


OLD   FRIENDS  AND   NK\V.  2:>1 

and  announced   "  The  Senator  from  Jsew   York,  with 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hudson." 

For  a  few  minutes  no  one  else  came.  The  Senator 
talked  with  the  President,  who  was  an  intimate  personal 
and  political  friend.  Mrs.  Hudson  talked  with  Ruth 
Cordis,  who  is  to  be  remembered  in  history  as  Mrs. 
Thomas  Poore.  And  Eachel  for  those  same  minutes 
entertained  the  railway  magnate,  her  old  friend,  Mr. 
Thomas  Hudson. 


THE    END. 


ALPHONSE  DAUDFT'S  FAMOUS  BOOK. 


L'EVANGELISTE. 

A    ROMANCE. 
By 


Tounded  on  the  Doings  of  the  Salvation  Army. 


1  is  far  out  of  the  beaten  track  of  fiction,  and  its  originality 
is  supplemented  by  intense  power  and  interest ;  in  fact,  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a 
romance  in  which  the  interest  is  more  absorbing.  Nor  is  this  interest  the  result, 
as  is  deplorably  the  case  in  so  much  French  fiction,  of  highly  spiced  sentimental- 
ity or  daring  vulgarity.  The  book  is  clean,  wholesome,  refined,  and  is,  moreover, 
founded  on  fact.  It  treats  mainly  of  the  acts  and  methods  of  that  world-famous 
organization,  the  Salvation  Army,  and  the  heroine,  Eline  Ebsen,  is  a  Dane,  living 
witn  her  mother  in  the  Scandinavian  colony  in  Paris.  She  is  on  tl 
married,  and  a  happy  life  seems  in  store  for  her,  but  suddenly  a  die 


witn  her  mother  in  the  Scandinavian  colony  in  Paris.  She  is  on  the  point  of  being 
married,  and  a  happy  life  seems  in  store  for  her,  but  suddenly  a  disturbing  influence 
appears  in  the  shape  of  Madam  Autheman,  a  wealthy  banker's  wife,  who  is  given 


to  making  religious  converts.  This  woman  hires  Eline  to  translate  some  prayer- 
books,  and  during  the  execution  of  the  work  the  girl  becomes  filled  with  her 
patron's  enthusiasm.  She  breaks  with  her  suitor  and  deserts  her  mother  to  serve 
as  a  preacher  in  the  Salvation  Army.  This  is  the  introduction  to  one  of  the  most 
thrillinir  novels  of  the  day,  and  from  thence  onward  the  plot  absolutely  enthralls 
the  reader,  each  succeeding  link  riveting  the  chain  the  tighter.  The  inc.dents  are 
strong  in  the  highest  degree,  very  dramatic,  and  pervaded  by  aliuid  light  of  mysti- 
cism which  augments  the  effect  a  thousand-fold.  The  gradual  development  in  the 
yoimsj  heroine  of  the  fatal  passion  for  proselytizing  people  is  depicted  as  Alphonse 
.Daudet  alone  of  all  the  French  novelists  can  depict  an  idea,  and  the  struggles  of 
the  poor  mother  to  recover  her  deluded  daughter  from  the  grasp  of  the  rich  Anthe- 
mans,  her  vain  appeals  to  the  feeling  of  pity  and  the  unsympathetic  law,  touch  the 
heart  of  the  reader  to  an  extent  the  pen  cannot  depict,  all  the  more  so  when  one 
learns  how  the  novel  came  to  be  written.  Daudet  had  often  observed  the  sad  face 
of  the  lady  who  gave  lessons  in  German  to  his  eldest  son.  Surprising  her  one  day, 
with  tears  in  her  eyes,  he  induced  her  to  narrate  the  causes  of  her  woe.  The  story 
cf  the  woman  forms  the  basis  of  this  novel,  in  which  she  figures  as  Mme.  Ebsen. 


WHAT  CRITICS  THINK  OF  DAUDET. 

HENRY  JAMES,  JR.,  eays,  in  the  Century  Magazine:  "We  have  no  one. 
either  in  England  or  America,  to  oppose  to  Alphonse  Daudet.  The  appearance  of 
a  new  novel  oy  this  admirable  genius  is  to  my  mind  the  most  delightful  literary 
event  that  can  occur  just  now  ;  in  other  words,  Alphonse  Daudet  Is  at  the  head 
of  his  profession." 

JULES  CLARETIE,  the  eminent  French  writer,  says :  "  To-day  Alnhonse 
Dandet  has  arrived  at  the  full  measure  of  his  renown.  In  fiction  he  is  proclaimed 
the  master.  ...  Is  the  most  delicate,  the  most  sympathetic,  the  most  charming  of 
all  our  contemporary  writers  of  romance.  .  .  .  The  poet  of  romance." 

JOAQUIN  MILLER  says,  in  a  letter,  April  3,  '84  :  "I  had  rather  be  Alphonse 
Dandet  than  any  other  living  man  now  in  literature,  except  two ;  one  of  these  la 
Victor  Hugo,  and  the  other  fe— Joaquin  Miller." 

Paper  Cover,  5O  cents.     Cloth,  $1.0O. 

IS"  This  is  the  ONLY  Complete  Edition  of  the  Story  published  in 
America.  About  one  half  of  the  Story  is  published  in  one  of  the  cheap 
Libraries  of  the  day— a  mere  fragment. 


STANDARD    LIBRARY. 

List    of   Cooks    for    1884,  as    far    as    (Selected. 


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106 
107 

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Kdinond  O'Donovan. 

The  Story  of  Mcrv. 
Epitomized  by  the  author 
from  the  2  vol.  8vo  edition  of 
the  Merv  Oasis. 

Ready. 

$0.25 
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"  A  literary  artist  of  extraordi- 
nary power,"—  N.  Y.  TKIBCXE, 
Dec  31,  1883. 

.11  n  HI  n  . 
Diary  of  n    Superfluous 
Man.     Two  Novels  trans- 
lated from  the  Russian. 

Ready. 

108 

Joaquin  Miller. 

Mcmorie  and  Rime. 

"Pages  from  My  Journal  ;  " 
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Ready. 

J25 

109 
110 

John  P.  Newman,  D.D. 

Christianity    Triumph- 
ant. 

Ready. 

.15 

John  Habberton. 

Author  of  "Helen's  Babies." 

The  Bowshaui  Puzzle. 

A  Novel. 

Ready,  j        .25 

111 

H.  R.  Haweis. 

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Ready.          .25 

112 
113 
114 

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[n  the  Heart  of  Africa. 

A   popular   vorK    prepared 
from   Maker's  various  books 
of  travel. 

Ready. 

.23 
.15 

Charles  II.  Spurgeon. 

The  Clew  of  the  Maze. 

From  advance  sneets. 

Ready. 

Edward  Everett  Hale. 

The  Fortunes  of  Rachel. 

A  Novel. 

May  19. 
June  2. 

.25 
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Jean  Paul  Richter. 

Wit,   Wisdom    and    Phi- 
losophv. 

A   collection    of   the   most 
striking    writings    from    the 
works  of  Richter. 

Joaquin  Miller. 

»«.».     A  Story  of  the  S>i- 
errns. 

A  Novel. 

Keorge  Parsons  Lathrop. 

True. 

A  Novel. 

.25 
25 

J.  C.  Goldsmith. 

Himself  Again. 

A  Novel. 

Julian  Hawthorne. 

Pearl-shell  Necklnce. 
Prince  Sardoni's  Wife. 

.15 

Capt.  Roland  Coffin. 

An  Old  Sailor's  Yarns. 

"/  deem  them  the,  best  sea 
stories  ever  written."  —  JOHN 
HABBBRTON. 

.25 

Henry  F.  Reddall. 

Pen    Pictures   from   Ro- 
mance and  Reality. 

.25 
.25 

Edgar  Fawcett. 

Rntherford. 

A  Novel. 

Laura  C.  Holloway. 

Author  of  "  Ladies  of  the  White 
House." 

Home  in  Poetry. 

.25 

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